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Carol to play in Fed Cup Asia/Oceania
Carol Lee, seen here playing in a Juniors ITF event on Saipan last year, will be playing for the Pacific Oceania in the 2017 Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group II that will be held in July in Tajikistan. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
CNMI junior player Carol Lee got a spot on the Pacific Oceania Team that will compete in the 2017 Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group II in July in Tajikistan.
Lee is the first Commonwealth player to be selected on the elite squad and earned a slot on the team after her impressive games in the Juniors ITF Circuit this year. The other current members of the Pacific Oceania Fed Cup Team are Samoa’s Steffi Carruthers, Palau’s Ayana Rengiil, Papua New Guinea’s Abigail Tere-Apisah, and New Caledonia’s Mayka Zima. The squad is captained by Tahiti’s Patrice Cotti.
The 15-year-old player’s inclusion to the select group came less than a week after she won her first Juniors ITF Circuit. Lee partnered with Skyler Marie Grace Grishuk of the U.S in taking the doubles finals of the RUC Tennis Junior Open in Morocco last weekend.
With the title win, she gained 40 Juniors ITF ranking points and climbed up from No. 330 to No. 318 in the world. She has 95 points in doubles and 125 in singles for the combined 148.75 ranking points.
The CNMI player is now in Fiji to train and prepare, not only for the Fed Cup, but also for five more Juniors ITF ranking tournaments in Fiji and New Caledonia.
In the Fed Cup, which will run from July 16 to 22 at the Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe, Lee and her Pacific Oceania teammates will join players from Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzkebekistan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Oman. Groupings have to be determined, but teams are likely to be divided into four pools with the winner in the entire tournament to move up to Group I.
Meanwhile, former CNMI junior player Colin Siclair, who is now based in the U.S. and played for Cornell University, has been chosen to play for the Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Team. He will compete in the 2017 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group III in Colombo, Sri Lanka, also in July this year.
