Lee triumphs anew in Australia

The CNMI’s Carol Lee reasserted her mastery over Australia’s Kelly Gilmour, sweeping her top-ranked foe in the girls U12 singles finale in the 2014 Victorian Junior Grasscourt Championships yesterday at the Wodonga Tennis Centre in Victoria, Australia.

Lee notched a 6-3, 6-5 victory in the championship game last weekend to bag her second singles crown. The first singles plum came from the 2014 Australia Post Margaret Court Cup in New South Wales and was incidentally courtesy of a finals win against Gilmour, 6-1, 6-2.

The Commonwealth bet and the Australian netter arranged their finals rematch after topping the lower and upper bracket of the 23-player main draw. In the bottom half of the draw, Lee did not drop a single set to bag a finals berth. She blanked Chloe Smith in the first round, 6-0, 6-0, and then stunned the second-ranked Caitlyn Portela in the second round, 6-1, 6-4, to march into the quarterfinals against fellow Pacific Oceania Junior ITF Touring Team player Naia Guitton of Tahiti. Lee prevailed new, 6-0, 6-1, for a semis date against the third-seeded Hana Kim. The CNMI junior player went on to stun another ranked foe, sweeping Kim in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-2.

In the other semis tiff, Gilmour, who eliminated Imogen Cameron and Charlie Hargreaves in her first two matches, ousted sixth-ranked Hayla Rafei, 6-3, 6-1, to have a second crack at Lee. However, Gilmour failed to avenge her loss to Lee in New South Wales and settled for another bridesmaid finish.

Meanwhile, Lee also triumphed in the doubles event, teaming up with Kim in beating the second-seeded Portela and Mia Repac in the finals, 6-4, 6-0.

Lee and Kim made it to the finals after nailing two victories over the weekend. Again, Lee frustrated Gilmour, who partnered with Angelina Teakaraanga, as the CNMI bet and her teammates booted out their seeded foe in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-1. The Lee and Kim duo then showed the exit door to another ranked pair, beating No. 4 picks Mia Savio and Amy Stevens in the semifinals of the upper bracket, 6-1, 6-1.

In the lower bracket semis, Repac and Portela won over Charlie Hargreaves and Rafei, 6-4, 7-5, to earn the right to challenge Kim and Lee in the finals. The first set of the title game was a back-and-forth match with Lee and Kim winning by only two points before dominating the second and last set with a shutout victory.

In other results, the CNMI’s Chris Cajigan made it to the finals of the consolation draw in the boys U16 singles. He defeated Leonard Khreish in the semifinals, 6-5, 7-2, before bowing to No. 8 seed Isaac Watson in three sets, 0-6, 6-2, 7-10.
Michael Ren also played on the consolation draw in the boys U12 singles and was one of the quarterfinalists.