Lee turns focus to NZ tournaments

Carol Lee will head to New Zealand later this month to compete in two ITF Juniors ranking tournaments. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The CNMI”s Carol Lee has shifted her attention to two tournaments in New Zealand after scrapping a contest in Morocco from the list of ITF Juniors ranking events she is scheduled to compete in.

“I will not be able to make it to the tournament in Morocco because of the conflict in my travel schedule. With the cancelation, I will instead join two tournaments in New Zealand,” Lee told Saipan Tribune in an interview yesterday.

The Commonwealth player will miss the Riad 21—a Grade 4 event that will be held on the clay court of Club Riad Rue Abdelaziz Boutaleb Agdal in Rabat, Morocco from Oct. 17 to 22.

“I’m kind of disappointed that I would not able to experience playing on the clay court and hit with other Top 100 and Top 200 players, but hopefully I will get that opportunity again,” said Lee, who still has several chances to join more ITF Juniors events as she is just turning 15 this December and players are allowed to compete in ranking events as long as they are in the 13 to 18 age group.

With the event in Morocco out of her list, Lee will resume her bid for ITF Juniors ranking points later this month when she participates in the Auckland ITF Indoor Championships 2016 that will be held at the Scarbro Tennis Centre in Auckland from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2.

As of yesterday, the 14-year-old Lee is among the 44 players on the acceptance list of the Grade 5 tournament. She is entered in the main draw along with 34 others. Twenty-one players in the main draw have world rankings with Australia’s Lisa Mays as the highest-ranked so far in the field at No. 240.

Lee is currently ranked No. 499, dropping from the ladder, as she last saw action in an ITF Juniors event early August. She was ranked as high as No. 443 (July 4, 2016) after winning events in New Caledonia and Fiji.

From Auckland, the Commonwealth player will head to Hamilton for the ITF Waikato-Bays Under 18s Championships. This event is also a Grade 5 contest and will run from Oct. 3 to 8 at the Waikato Tennis Centre in East Hamilton. Again, Lee is included in the main draw of the tournament in Waikato, which has more players (54) on the acceptance list.

Joining Lee in the two tournaments in New Zealand is her doubles partner Ayana Rengiil of Palau. Lee and Rengiil are members of the Pacific Oceania Touring Team, which also has Samoa’s Lyla Tapusoa and Papua New Guinea’s Patricia Apisah.