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Lee wins Junior ITF debut
The CNMI’s Carol Lee had a rousing debut in the Calvo’s Selectcare ITF Junior Championships 2015 after dominating her Japanese opponent yesterday at the Rick Ninete Tennis Centre in Hagatna.
Lee was paired against Haruna Tsuzuki in the opening round of the girls U18 singles and the Commonwealth bet needed only two sets to eliminate her foe, 6-2, 6-4.
The CNMI’s Carol Lee had a rousing debut in the Calvo’s Selectcare ITF Junior Championships 2015 after dominating her Japanese opponent yesterday at the Rick Ninete Tennis Centre in Hagatna.
With the sweep, the CNMI’s top-ranked player in the girls U18 division, arranged a second round match against the winner of the duel between the No. 7 seed Yuri Takanishi of Japan and Singapore’s Maxine Ng. Takanishi and Nang squared off in the afternoon match yesterday, but results of the pairing were unavailable at press time.
Lee’s victory in the first round gave the CNMI the needed lift, as the island-nation’s seven other entries to the tournament made an early exit.
Mikayla Lopez joined Lee in the upper half of the 32-player main draw, but fell to Singapore’s Ashley Kei Yim, 1-6, 2-6. In the lower half of the bracket, Negahr Rastguiy also dropped her opening match against No. 6 seed Runa Ichinose of Japan, 0-6, 3-6. Tania Tan is the fourth CNMI player competing in the girls U18 singles and was scheduled to challenge wild card entry Ling Hsuan Wei of Chinese-Taipei yesterday in the bottom half of the draw, but results of their game were unavailable at press time.
In the boys U18 singles, the Commonwealth’s lone bet in the main draw, Colin Ramsey, bowed out of competition after losing to South Korea’s Yohan Sung, 6-0, 6-0.
Only Ramsey made it to the boys U18 singles main draw after his four other teammates failed to survive last weekend’s qualifying tournament. Luther Lizama missed the main draw after absorbing a 1-6, 1-6 defeat at the hands of Japan’s Yuta Kikuchi, while Tommy Choi, Michael Ren, and Steven Lee suffered similar 0-6, 0-6 losses. Choi bowed to Germany’s Marvin Bockers, while Ren and Lee were booted out by Japan’s Riku Yoneda and the Philippines’ Julian Dayrit, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the doubles contest, the CNMI will only play in the girls division. Tan and Lee will team up in the doubles event and have a tough opening assignment in the No. 1 seed pair of Maria Dominique Ong of the Philippines and Singapore’s Nicole Tan. Lopez and Rastguiy will also take on seeded opponents in No. 4 Nagomi Higashitani and Ayu Sugiyama of Japan. Both doubles matches are scheduled for today.
