Serving success: CNMI’s Carol Lee reflects on the past year of her pro tennis career

The CNMI’s Carol Lee is a rising professional tennis star, with big wins under her belt already just about a year into her pro career at 23 years old.

She has already surpassed her goal of cracking the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Top 500, reaching a career-high ranking of 216. Over the weekend, she took a well-deserved break from the tour to rest before diving back in, reflecting on a year full of big wins and special moments following her graduation from the Georgia Institute of Technology last year.

Training out of the T2B Academy based in Germany, her first professional title—theInternational Tennis Federation (ITF) W15 Monastir Tournament in Tunisia last March where she won after three grueling sets, set the tone for her pro tennis career. She won over Isis Louise Van den Broek in three tough sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. “That meant a lot because I had ups and downs. One of my goals this year was to achieve to win a 15K so achieving that this year was really special for me,” she said.

The second biggest achievement for her was winning the title in the ITF W50 Lopota Tennis Open in Georgia last April after another marathon tournament where she played nonstop for two weeks. In the finals, she defeated Ekaterine Gorgodze, 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 6-4. “The past three matches were three hours long and the last match was 3 hours and 30 minutes and I won in three sets. I came all the way from qualifiers and without taking a break. And I did not imagine myself winning a 50K yet this year but I really, really wanted to take this opportunity and I was able to achieve it so that was also a very proud accomplishment,” she said.

Recently, she also competed and won a gold medal for her team in the Korean National Sports Festival also known as the “Jeonguk Cheyuk Daehoe” that’s held annually every October. She said it’s described as a “mini Olympics” where multiple sports are played, not just tennis.

Now at the level she’s reached, she expressed gratitude to everyone who supported her through the early challenges of her pro career: her family, her coach then at T2B Academy, Anne Aallonen, her teammates in Korea, her supporters back home, as well as her agent at 358 Sports Management and her many sponsors.

After her much needed break, she flies out to Australia to gear up and compete in the Brisbane W50 ITF set for this month. Her next goal is to compete in her first grand slam of the year next year—the Australian Open.

Even with her big goals in mind and the rest of her pro career ahead of her, she said that she still wants to keep representing the NMI and shares about where she comes from with people.

She said, “no one knew about our island but they were so curious about where I came from… I was giving them good stories, good background, and history, and they were very open minded and interested. It gave me an extra push that the more I accomplish these things and the more wins I have, the more I’m able to spread awareness of where I came from—the NMI.”

From her humble beginnings at just six years old, coached by her father, Dong Min Lee, on the American Memorial Park tennis courts, she quickly rose through the regional ranks, claiming her first major victories at the ITF Junior Championships in New Caledonia in back-to-back years, 2017 and 2018. After establishing herself as one of the top junior players in the region with additional titles, she drew interest from around 30 universities and ultimately chose Georgia Tech before launching her professional career.

Her words to the youth: “To all the young players in the NMI, don’t be afraid to dream big. Whatever your goals or passion may be, keep believing in yourself and keep working hard. We may come from a small island, but that doesn’t mean our dreams have to be small. Take advantage of the opportunities and resources we have in this island and create something special. Let’s show our NMI pride to the rest of the world.”