Lee makes semis in Singapore

The upset axe of the CNMI’s Carol Lee worked again in the Singapore ITF Junior Championships 2015.

Carol Lee, seen here in action in the CNMI-hosted ITF Junior event in May this year, made it to the semifinals of the doubles contest in the Singapore ITF Junior Championships 2015.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Lee, who earlier stunned third-ranked Shevita Aulana of Indonesia, 6-1, 6-4, in their second round game in the singles event, teamed up with Singapore’s Charmaine Seah in the doubles and ousted No. 2 seed Aulana and another Indonesian, Novela Millenia Putri, last Wednesday at the Kallang Tennis Centre in Stadium Road.

The unseeded Lee and Seah took only two sets to eliminate Aulana and Millenia Putri, 6-2, 6-3. The victory was the second for the CNMI-Singapore tandem and it put them in the semifinal round. Lee and Seah, who also got their first win via sweep against Singapore’s Ruhi Kamdar and Tessa Wong, 6-0, 6-0, will be pitted in the semis against the winner in the other quarterfinal match between the pairs of China’s Tingting Pei and Xin Xu Wang and No. 4 Oxi Gravitas Putri and Samantha Nanere of Indonesia.

The China versus Indonesia in the lower bracket quarterfinal was scheduled to be played late Wednesday afternoon, but was rained-out and reset to yesterday morning with the winner meeting Lee and Seah in the afternoon semis tiff.

Joining Lee and Seah in the Final Four were Malaysia’s Belinda Chai Wi Xin and Chinese-Taipei’s Yi Tsen Cho and Indonesia’s Hernanda Cholis and Faiza Saskia. Xin and Cho advanced to the semifinals after a walkover win against the top-ranked pair of Arrum Damarsari and Fadona Kusumawati of Indonesia, while Cholis and Saskia pulled off an upset against the third seed duo of Claudia Ng of Hong Kong and Chinese-Taipei’s Ssu-Yi Wu, 2-6, 6-4, 10-8.

Meanwhile, Lee dropped her quarterfinal match in the singles event, losing to seventh-ranked Joleta Budiman of Indonesia, 3-6, 3-6. Budiman will now face Ng in the lower bracket semis after the latter won over the No. 5 pick Kusumawati, 5-1 (retired.

In the upper bracket Final Four pairing, it will be Wang against Gravitas Putri. Wang prevailed in the battle of unranked players, outclassing Nanere, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, while Gravitas Putri knocked off Mellenia Putri, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-0.

Despite her quarterfinal defeat, Lee is already assured of ITF Junior ranking points in the Singapore event and could earn more if she makes it past the semis in the doubles contest. Quarterfinalists in the singles event of the Grade 5 tournament are awarded 10 points, while semifinalists and the champions in the doubles take 10 and 20 points (each), respectively. The doubles runners-up will go home with 15 ITF Junior ranking points.