![](\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/itfpix-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Upset marked the semifinal round of the singles event in the 2019 Oceania Closed Junior Championships with the CNMI\u2019s Carol Lee and Australia\u2019s Natasha Russell losing to their lower-ranked opponents yesterday at the International Tennis Federation Regional Training Center in Lautoka, Fiji.<\/p>\n
The No. 1 seed Lee was defeated by No. 3 Talia Gibson of Australia, while No. 7 Amy Stevens topped Russell, who is seeded second in the main draw. Lee, who was seeking a return trip to the finals, moved a set away from doing so when she eked out a 7-6 (5) win over Gibson in the first set. However, the Australian countered in the second set with a 6-4 triumph and completed the upset in the deciding third, 6-2, to oust Lee and set up a title showdown against Stevens.<\/p>\n
The other semis game was also played in three sets with Stevens pulling off a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 victory. Stevens and Gibson will dispute the singles championship today with the latter aiming for her third straight title in a little over a month.<\/p>\n
Before coming to Fiji, the 15-year-old Gibson won two tournaments in Australia. Her latest was the Mapei Gold Coast Junior International in Gold Coast last July 21 and incidentally, the finals victory was against Russell, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-5. Gibson also competed in the Rod Laver Queensland Junior Championships in Brisbane and defeated Malaysia\u2019s Sara Nayar in their title game last month, 1-6, 6-4, 6-0. Both events in Australia were Grade 4, while the Oceania Closed is ranked higher at Grade 2.<\/p>\n
In the doubles event, there was no upset in the semis at the upper half of the bracket, as No. 1 seed Roopa Bains and Russell downed No. 3 Stevens and Lara Walker, 6-3, 1-6, 10-5. Bains and Russell will vie for the division title against the duo of Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz and Elena Micic, who won the battle of unranked teams at the lower half of the draw after prevailing against Catherine Aulia and Vivian Yang, 6-4, 3-6, 10-6.<\/p>\n
In the boys doubles finals, it will be No. 1 seed Cihan Akay and Nikita Volonski against No. 8 Tai Sach and Matthew Shearer. Akay is also in the championship game in singles and the No. 3 seed will challenge No. 2 Stefan Storch.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, after bowing out of competition in the Oceania Closed, Lee will head to New South Wales, Australia to play in another high-ranking event\u2014the Grade 2 Australian Winter International.<\/p>\n
In the Aussie tournament, Lee will be meeting several players that also competed in Fiji. The main draw will also feature players from Japan, New Zealand, and Malaysia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Upset marked the semifinal round of the singles event in the 2019 Oceania Closed Junior…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":306181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}