Lee moves up in world rankings

The CNMI’s Carol Lee made a big leap in the ITF Junior world rankings, moving from No. 780 to No. 747 after competing in the Singapore ITF Junior Championships 2015 last week.

Carol Lee gets ready to serve during a single game in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships held on Saipan early this year. She is now ranked No. 747 after getting 20 ITF Junior rankings points from a tournament in Singapore last week.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The 13-year-old player climbed 33 notches up to the ladder receiving 20 points from the Singapore event for advancing to the semifinals of the doubles contest and the quarterfinals in the singles play. With her achievement, Lee remains the highest-ranked junior player in the Pacific Oceania region.

“I’m happy that I improved my rankings after I got 20 points in Singapore,” said Lee, who returned to Saipan yesterday morning after seeing action in the Singapore competition that run from Nov. 2 to 7.

“I was surprised that I won against the No. 3 seed player from Indonesia in the singles,” added Lee, who now has combined ranking points of 66. 25.

The Saipan Community School student, who quickly suited up for the school’s volleyball game yesterday afternoon, was talking of her upset victory against Shevita Aulana of Indonesia, 6-1, 6-4, in the second round of the girls main draw.

“When I saw her play against a player from China, she was tough and the score was close. I was kind of nervous, but that didn’t make me lose my pride and faith. I tried my best and did all the things I practiced and my hard work paid off,” Lee said in an interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday.

After completing her singles assignment, Lee said she hoped to march into the finals with partner Chairmaine Seah of Singapore.

“I expected to go to the finals, but unfortunately it didn’t really work out. The players were tough. We could have won the first set in the semifinals,” Lee said.

The CNMI bet and her teammate played an extended opening set before Sin Yu Wang and Tingting Pei of China pulled off a 7-6 (4) win in their Final Four duel. The Chinese eventually took the finals berth in the lower half of the draw after prevailing in the second set, 6-1, and they also bagged the doubles title following a 6-1, 6-3 victory against Malaysia’s Belinda Chai Wei Xin and Yi Tsen Cho of Chinese-Taipei.

Before bowing to Pei and Wang, the unranked duo of Lee and Seah stunned the No. 2-seeded pair of Aulana and Novela Millenia Putri, 6-2, 6-3, in the quarterfinals, and dominated Singapore Ruhi Kamdar and Tessa Wong, 6-0, 6-0, in the first match.

“That day (quarterfinals), I did pretty good. It was like I was dancing on the court, making a lot of winners and volleys,” Lee said.

Meanwhile, Lee will resume training on Saipan to prepare for two tournaments. She will be competing in the 2015 Tan Holdings Tennis Classic later this month and will join teammates Conatsu Kaga, Tania Tan, Robbie Schorr, and Ken Song in a competition in Australia next month.