Lee bags 20 ITF Junior ranking points

The CNMI’s Carol Lee collected 20 more ITF Junior points after completing her participation in the Singapore ITF Junior Championships 2015 last week.

Carol Lee, seen here competing in a local tournament at the American Memorial Park tennis courts, got 20 ITF Junior ranking points in Singapore last week. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Lee got 10 points each in the singles and doubles divisions of the Grade 5 tournament that run from Nov. 2 to 7 at the Kallang Tennis Centre in Stadium Road.

In the singles event, Lee, who just entered the ITF Junior Circuit this year after turning 13 last December, received 10 points for making it to the quarterfinals of the girls main draw. She won her first two matches via sweeps, prevailing against Shi Yi Meg Ang of Singapore in the opening round, 6-1, 6-0, and stunning the No. 3 seed Shevita Aulana of Indonesia, 6-1, 6-4, in the second to march into the quarterfinals.

In the Round of 8, the CNMI bet was paired against the No. 7-ranked Joleta Budiman of Indonesia and the latter managed to end Lee’s run in the singles play after posting a 6-3, 6-3 victory. Budiman went on to miss a finals stint after bowing to Hong Kong’s Claudia Ng in the semis, 2-6, 3-6, while the latter beat China’s Sin Yu Wang in the title match, 6-7 (5), 4-6.

In the doubles events, Lee made it a notch higher in the ladder after barging into the semifinals. She teamed up with Singapore’s Charmaine Seah and they won two straight matches to earn a Final Four berth and get 10 ITF Junior ranking points each.

The Lee-Seah tandem recorded its first win against the Singapore pair of Ruhi Kamdar and Tessa Wong, 6-0, 6-0, and then eliminated the No. 2-seeded duo of Aulana and Novela Millenia Putri, 6-2, 6-3, to arrange a semis date against Wang and Tingting Pei.

In the Final Four pairing at the lower half of the bracket, Lee and Seah went neck-and-neck versus the Chinese pair in the first set before losing, 6-7 (4). Wang and Pei went on to foil Lee and Seah’s finals hopes after an easier 6-1 victory in the second set and then clinched the doubles crown and the 20 ranking points that goes with it after sweeping Malaysia’s Belinda Chai Wei Xin and Yi Tsen Cho of Chinese-Taipei in the title match, 6-1, 6-3.

Meanwhile, Lee’s 20 points have yet to be added to her credit, leaving her with a combined 53.75 ITF Junior ranking points. Before competing in Singapore, Lee gained 50 points from singles events in six tournaments and 15 in the doubles to earn the No. 780 ranking in the world and become the highest-ranked Pacific Oceania player. She dropped to No. 834 prior to the Singapore event and is expected to move back up after her notable showing in last week’s competition.