Lee wins ITF Junior ranking points

The CNMI’s Carol Lee gained 20 ITF Junior ranking points from tournaments in New Caledonia and Fiji.

Carol Lee, seen here in action during the ITF Junior ranking tournament on Saipan last month, gained ranking points in New Caledonia and Fiji competitions. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Lee got 5 points in the singles event of the Open Junior BNP PARIBAS de Nouvelle-Caledonie in Noumea last week for prevailing against Australia’s Lisa Mays, 6-1, 7-5, in the opening round of the Grade 5 tournament. With the victory, the 13-year-old Commonwealth player qualified to the Round of 16 where she fell short of advancing to the quarterfinals after losing in three sets against Japan’s Runa Ichinose, 2-6, 6-1, 3-6.

In the doubles, Lee earned 5 more rankings points, as she and partner Ayana Rengiil of Palau swept Japan’s Wakaba Sato, and New Zealand’s Emilia Price, 6-0, 6-4, in the Round of 16. The Saipan Community School student joined the ITF Junior event in New Caledonia as part of the Pacific Oceania GSDF (Grand Slam Development Fund) Touring Team.

From New Caledonia, Lee and company returned to Fiji to participate in the South Pacific Open Junior Championships 2015 in Lautoka. Again, Lee partnered with Rengiil and they won their Round of 16 doubles match against Japan’s Sophie Maho Hamada and Hong Kong’s Venia Yeung in a come-from-behind fashion. Hamada and Yeung clobbered Lee and Rengiil in the opening set, 6-0, but the Pacific Oceania tandem came back with vengeance in mind and pulled off a 6-4 in the second. In the super tiebreak, Lee and Rengiil kept their momentum to post a convincing 10-3 win and earn a quarterfinals berth in the 16-team field. In the Round of 8 match yesterday, the Pacific Oceania pair fell to the top-ranked duo of Australia’s Michaela Haet and the U.S.’ Mimi Levine, 2-6, 0-6.

Despite the defeat, Lee still gained 10 points from the Grade 4 tournament in Fiji, bringing her total to 25 this year. She notched her first ITF Junior ranking points (5) in May when she topped Japan’s Haruna Tsuzuki in the Round of 32, 6-2, 6-4, in the Calvo’s Selectcare ITF Junior Championships 2015 in Hagatna, Guam.

Meanwhile, after the two ranking tournaments, Lee will remain in Fiji to continue training at the ITF Regional Training Center. She will be there until August and will be joined by 14 other CNMI junior tennis, as they lead the North Pacific team’s bid in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships.