Carol soars to world rankings

The CNMI’s Carol Lee, right, is all smiles after receiving her singles championship trophy during the awards ceremony for the Caledonia ITF Junior 2017 held last week in Noumea. Joining Lee in the photo are runner-up and France’s Helena Mohamed, center, and a tournament official. (Contributed Photo)

There’s no stopping Carol Lee from rising up to the world rankings.

After sweeping the singles and doubles championships in the New Caledonia ITF Junior 2017 in Noumea last week, the 15-year-old Lee broke the 300 barrier, as she is now ranked No. 287. Lee was at No. 314 when she entered the Grade 5 tournament and way far at No. 470 at the start of the 2017 season.

Her victories in the New Caledonia ITF Junior 2017 gave her additional 30 points in the singles and 20 in the doubles, bringing his combined total ranking points so far to 161.25. She has 135 in the singles and 105 in the doubles and could add more as she is in contention in both the singles and doubles events of the ongoing Open BNP Paribas Junior de Nouvelle-Caledonie.

In the singles play, the No. 1 seed Lee eased her way to the third round after drawing a bye in the first and sweeping New Caledonia’s Lea Bolo in the second yesterday, 6-1, 6-0. For the third round, which will be played today, Lee is paired against No. 16 and Japanese Sakura Kurokawa, who eliminated Australia’s Lara Kaplan, 7-5, 6-4.

Another CNMI bet, Isabel Heras, advanced to the third round, as the No. 11 seed also got a bye in Round 1 before outclassing Japanese wild card Rima Yoshida, 6-1, 6-5, in the second. Heras’ third round opponent is the unranked Milan Kirsh, who pulled off an upset over No. 6 seed Holly Stewart, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

Joining Kirsh, Heras, Kurokawa, and Lee to the third round were seeded players Sara Tsukamoto, Amelia Lawson, Erika Matsuda, Georgia Townsend, Ashley Yim, and Ciara Di Tommaso and unranked Lysiane Moto-Nekiriai and Helena Mohamed, who challenged Lee in the singles finals of last week’s tournament.

In the doubles, Lee and Stewart and Tsukamoto and Otoha Aoki are the only seeded players left standing. The No. 2 Lee and Stewart barged into the quarterfinals after beating Kaplan and New Zealand’s Sophie Michl, 6-2, 6-2, and will be facing Aussies Krish and Chloe Katerdian—a 6-1, 4-6, 10-6 winner over Kiwis Aimee Brown and Alysa Nowacki—in the quarterfinals. The top-seeded pair of Aoki and Tsukamoto duplicated Lee and Stewart’s two-set win after ousting Lawson and Sarah Weekley, 6-1, 6-2. Heras missed the quarterfinals as she and Australia’s Roopa Bains fell short against the Singapore duo of Yim and Julia Daiya Barden, 6-2, 4-6, 8-10.

In the boys doubles, the CNMI’s Robbie Schorr and his teammate Aaryan Zaveri of India are in the Round of 8. The No. 5 seed pair advanced following a 6-0, 6-1 victory over New Caledonia’s Jean-Victor De Gaillande and Solal Molko. Next up for Schorr and Zaveri are No. 4 and Kiwis Isaac Becroft and Finley Hall, who topped Tahiti’s Jeremy Guines and New Zealand’s Adrian Christoff Lagman, 6-3, 6-4.