Big leap for Carol

CNMI junior tennis player Carol Lee is now ranked No. 166 in the world. (Contributed Photo)

Carol Lee jumped several notches up in the ITF Juniors Circuit world rankings, as the CNMI bet is now at No. 166.

This is the 16-year-old’s highest ranking so far under the elite group of junior players in the world, surpassing the No. 178 she obtained early this year. The big leap was made possible by Lee’s finals appearance in last week’s Oceania Closed Junior Championships 2018 in Fiji—a B2 tournament (fifth in the order of importance/most ranking points awarded). Before playing in the Oceania Closed, the Commonwealth junior player was ranked No. 218.

Lee climbed up to the world rankings, as she earned 95 points for marching into the singles title game against eventual champion and Australia’s Amber Marshall, who collected 160. The points Lee got from the Oceania Closed was her highest in a singles event. She gained 60 when she won the South Pacific Junior Championships that was also held in Fiji last June and 30 each in the 2017 Seogwipo Asia/Oceania Closed Junior Championships (quarterfinalist), 2018 Northern Marianas Junior Championships (winner), and 2018 Oceania Open Junior Championships (winner). Lee added 20 points from the 30th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (II) ITF Junior Circuit for making it to the Round of 8 of the Grade 3 event in Malaysia, bringing her total ranking points in singles to 265.

In doubles, the CNMI junior player still has 142 for the combined 300.5 ranking points. Lee’s highest earned points in the doubles was the 27 she tallied in the 1st ITF Perlis Junior Championship 2017 in Malaysia, while she gained 25 each for winning the doubles crown in the Northern Marianas Junior Championships and Oceania Open this year.

Meanwhile, Carol admitted to facing a tough opponent in Marshall in the finals of the Oceania Closed last week.

“Amber played really well and very solid. I started off pretty slow and fought back in the second set, but by then Amber raised her game to close out the match,” said Lee, who went down by only two points in the second set, 4-6, after Marshall cruised to a 6-1 triumph in the first set. “It was a tough finals.”

Lee is now in Sydney, Australia to compete in another ITF Juniors world ranking tournament—the Australian Winter International. Then from the Land Down Under, she will go back to Fiji to continue training at the ITF/OTF regional facility and prepare for her last set of tournaments this year in Jeju, South Korea.

“Those tournaments will take place at the end of October and the beginning of November,” said the four-time Northern Marianas Sports Association/Tan Siu Lin Foundation Female Student Athlete of the Year awardee.