Aug. 1, 2011
Former Yellow Jacket women’s tennis player Irina Falconi highlighted a strong weekend on the courts by current and former Jackets. Falconi advanced to the semifinals of the Citi Open, which was held at The Tennis Center at College Park in College Park, Md.
Former Yellow Jacket Amanda McDowell won the USTA Pro Circuit’s The Heartland Clinic USTA Women’s Tennis Clinic event in St. Joseph, Mo., while current Jacket Viet Ha Ngo defeated teammate Elizabeth Kilborn in the finals of the Atlanta City Open. Rising senior Lynn Blau finished off back-to-back wins in Europe as well.
Falconi defeated Olga Govortsova 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round. After taking the first set 6-4 over China’s Shuai Zhang in the second round, Zhang was forced to retire. Falconi advanced to the semis with a 6-4, 6-3 win over France’s Virginie Razzano, but fell to eventual champion and world No. 32 Nadia Petrova in three sets, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.
The strong outing boosted Falconi from No. 102 in the world rankings to No. 81 in her first year on tour.
McDowell, seeded second, quickly moved past Jessica Lawrence 6-2, 6-2, in the opener and downed Christina Makarova 6-3, 6-2 in the second round. McDowell defeated Japan’s Yuuki Tanaka 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. McDowell battled back after dropping the first set of her semifinal match against Romana Tedjakusuma 2-6, but rebounded to take the second two sets 7-5 and 6-2.
McDowell defeated Denise Muresan 6-0, 6-1 to claim the title.
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