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Carol drops doubles match in Australia
Carol Lee, seen here playing in an ITF Juniors event on Saipan, dropped her doubles match in the 2019 AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International in Australia last weekend. (Contributed Photo)
Four-time NMSA/TSL Foundation Student Athlete of the Year Carol Lee got the early boot in the doubles play in the 2019 AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International.
Lee partnered with India’s Shivani Amineni and they were beaten by No. 7 seed Kamila Bartone of Latvia and Guilia Morlet of France in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, of the first round match last Saturday at the hard court of the Traralgon Tennis Association in Victoria, Australia.
The AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International was Lee’s first competition this season and despite the loss she will remain in the Land Down Under, as she hopes to play in the qualifying tournament for the 2019 Australian Open Junior Championships. The qualifier will take place on Jan. 16 and 17, while the main draw games both in the singles and doubles will run from Jan. 19 to 26.
The 17-year-old Lee is one of the 26 players on the acceptance list for the qualifying tournament and the lone representative from the Pacific. Italy, Great Britain, Russia, the U.S., Georgia, Poland, Australia, South Korea, Japan, India, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Finland have players, too entered in the qualifier.
For the main draw of the 64-player singles field, world No. 4 Clara Tauson of Denmark leads the roster, joining 45 other Top 100 players in the world.
Lee, despite getting eliminated in AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International, moved up into the rankings—from No. 175 (combined doubles and singles) at the end of 2018 to No. 152 (as of Jan. 7, 2019). She achieved her highest ranking (No. 150) last Dec. 29, 2018 after earning ranking points from two tournaments in Mexico.
