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Lee barges into Top 400
The CNMI’s Carol Lee, seen here in a file photo, is now world ranked No. 369 in the ITF Juniors. (Contributed Photo)
The CNMI’s Carol Lee entered the Top 400 of the ITF Juniors world rankings after competing in two tournaments in New Zealand last month.
As of Jan. 23, Lee is at No. 369, making her the highest-ranked player (boys and girls) in the entire Pacific, surpassing former Commonwealth bet Ji Hoon Heo, who ranked as high as No. 440 in 2010.
Before joining the Wilson Tennis Canterbury in Christchurch and the 2017 Tecnifibre Tennis Central Championships in Wellington, the 15-year-old Lee was at No. 470. Last season, she climbed to as high as No. 443.
The CNMI player then moved to No. 404 after making it to the semifinals of the doubles and quarterfinals of the singles event in her tournament in Christchurch. At the conclusion of her first Grade 4 tournament, she traveled to Wellington for the 2017 Tecnifibre Tennis Central Championships and her semis stint in the singles and quarterfinals in the doubles allowed her to barge into the Top 400.
Lee is now in Auckland for her third and last ranking tournament in New Zealand—the NZ ITF Summer Championships 2017. The competition is a Grade 3 event and offers more ranking points, which Lee needs to move closer to her dream of making it to the Top 200.
Lee is still in contention in the singles event in the NZ ITF Summer Championships 2017 after sweeping her first two games at the Scarbro Tennis Centre.
The No. 6 seed Lee showed no mercy in beating Australia’s Tiana Glazbrook, 6-0, 6-0. She then took only two sets anew to eliminate Korea’s Jiho Sin, 6-2, 6-3, to march into the third round of the 64-player main draw. In Round 3, Lee will be facing Australia’s Ivana Popovic. The Land Down Under player is seeded at No. 11 and also swept her first two foes—Japan’s Miku Murao, 6-1, 6-1, and New Zealand’s Ivy Mclean, 6-2, 6-3—to qualify in the third round.
Lee and Papua New Guinea’s Patricia Apisah are the only Pacific Oceania Team members left in the race for the singles crown in the Auckland tournament after Palau’s Ayana Rengiil and Fiji’s Mulan Kamoe were both eliminated in the second round. Kamoe survived the opening round after downing New Zealand’s wild card entry Lara McNaughten, 6-2, 6-3, while Rengiil took the longer route to Round 2 following a 3-5, 7-6 (4), 6-3 triumph over Alysa Nowacki also of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, in the doubles event, Lee and Kamoe got an early boot after losing anew to Japan’s Risa Fukutoku and Mara Kawamura, 6-4, 6-1. The Japanese were the Pacific Oceania players’ tormentors in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Wellington last week and the former went on to rule the doubles event of the Grade 4 competition.
