Lee marches into finals

Carol Lee stretches for a return during her singles match against Colin Ramsey during the Week 1 of the 7th Tan Holdings Tennis Classic at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. She is now in Australia and will play in the finals of the consolation draw. (Contributed Photo)

CNMI junior player Carol Lee continued to fight off injury as she advanced to the finals of the consolation draw of the 2015 14/U Australian Championships.

Lee notched two more victories on the west bracket of the singles event to set up a finals showdown against Megan Smith of Queensland. The 13-year-old defeated New South Wales’ Bojana Marinkov in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-0, last Tuesday at the Melbourne Park, and then swept South Australia’s Tiana Glazbrook, 6-0, 6-3, yesterday to march into the finals against the sixth-ranked Smith.

Lee’s wins against Marinkov and Glazbrook were her second and third and came a few days after she nearly pulled out of the tournament due to a knee injury. The Pacific’s highest-ranked player (Junior ITF) suffered a knee strain in the third set of her opening round match in the main draw against the No. 2 Madison Bishop of South Australia last Saturday.

“My left upper knee got hurt. I had a long rally and may have outstretched my muscles. My knee cramped at first and I tried to let go by shaking my leg. But it got worse and after that I couldn’t really walk and balance well,” said Lee in a message sent to Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Lee was serving and leading at 5-3 in the deciding set when she was forced to withdraw. She lost the first set, 4-6, but extended the match with a 6-4 victory in the second.

With Lee giving up the win, Bishop made it all the way to the semifinals before bowing to Annerly Poulos, 3-6, 6-3, 5-7. Lee, on the other hand, dropped to the main consolation draw and was up on her feet again, dominating Western Australia’s Hayley O’Donnell, 6-1, 6-1, and South’s Leonora Radocaj, 6-3, 6-1, to move into the quarterfinals and then collected two more wins to get a finals berth.

“It (knee) still hurts, but I am trying not to think about it. I felt sad when I failed to continue my game in the main draw. The girls in that group are very good players and I know I have a chance against them and I can at least make it to the semifinals,” Lee said.

Meanwhile, Lee also played in the doubles event with Tahiti’s Naia Guitton, but the Pacific GSDF Touring Team members bowed to the fourth-ranked pair of Bishop and Kristina Lane, 4-6, 4-6.

Lee’s fellow CNMI player, Tania Tan, competed in the same event and partnered with New South Wales’ Tharubphet Homkrun. Tan and Homkrun won the opening set, 3-6, but failed to take the win as NWS’ Kayla Greco and South Australia’s Casey Tay prevailed in the second, 6-3, and the super tiebreak third set, 10-5.

In the boys division, the CNMI’s Robbie Schorr and Tahiti’s Jeremy Guines fell to Victoria’s Daniel Paveska and Queensland’s William Timoney, 4-6, 3-6, while Ken Song and Victoria’s Jake Young bowed to NWS’ Ashley Lauweriks and Marko Lukic, 3-6, 3-6.