In a week of torrential downpour, Centennial celebration and football rivalry, the Duke women’s tennis team had its own ups and downs at the ITA All-American Championship in Cary, N.C.
After opening their fall season at the Kitty Harrison Invitational earlier this month, the Blue Devils have quickly found themselves playing for much higher stakes. This is the first year that the NCAA Individual Championship will be played at the conclusion of the fall season, rather than in the spring. Reaching the quarterfinals of the main draw was a sure bet for a qualification to the prestigious event come November. With so many top players in the mix though, this was easier said than done.
“There's never going to be an easy match in a tournament like this. It's essentially the top 64 players in the country,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “Once you get down to the main draw and everyone's vying for spots in the NCAA tournament later this fall, you're going to get everyone's best shot.”
While the Blue Devils fell just short this week, the tournament was not without its upsides. Senior Emma Jackson outlasted her teammates in the draw, reaching the consolation round of 16 following two ranked wins Friday. Despite dropping her first main match on Wednesday to Vanderbilt’s Bridget Stammel 7-5, 6-3, the La Grange Park, Ill., native came back the next day to defeat Auburn’s Ava Hrastar in three sets (6-7, 6-1, 6-3).
Jackson followed this up with wins against No. 9 Nicole Khirin of Texas A&M and No. 16 Julia Garcia Ruiz of Oklahoma to book her spot in a Saturday match. With momentum on her side, Jackson was poised to pull off an upset over No. 4 Connie Ma to reach the back draw quarterfinals.
Jackson wasn’t far from the win after dominating a forehand-to-forehand rally to break Ma in the first game of the second set. Despite struggling to find her first serves, the senior managed to hold. Just when things started to go Jackson’s way, Ma saved three breakpoints in a crucial 2-2 game to take the lead. Jackson responded when it mattered most, winning her own three consecutive points to take the second set.
The deciding third set resembled the opening set with the Blue Devil struggling to control quick baseline balls. Despite the devastating end to her run, Jackson demonstrated tenacity and mental strength that bodes well for the rest of the Blue Devils’ season.
“We were really proud of how [Jackson] came back after that and came back ready to fight and ready to compete in the back draw,” Ashworth said. “She has to understand that she can compete at that level and we need that out of her as well. She's been a great player for us for three years and we need her out there being able to compete with some of the best players in the country.”
Fellow senior Ellie Coleman had more comeback success with her win against No. 20 Mia Kupres of Texas A&M 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, marking her second career top-20 win. This week was the Midland Mich., native’s second tournament since returning from an injury that ended her season in early February. Ranked as high as No. 74 before her injury, Coleman’s passion and dedication has certainly shown in her performance thus far this season, going 3-0 at the Kitty Harrison Invitational two weeks ago.
“[Coleman’s] playing some of the best tennis that she's played in her career at Duke and we need that for our team to accomplish what we want to accomplish,” Ashworth said. “It's great to see her competing and fighting. I think it's a tribute to her too and the work that she put in coming back from injury.”
Katie Codd also collected a ranked win this week, beating Chloe Noel of Oklahoma 7-5, 6-3 in the main round of 64 before falling to Tatum Evans of North Carolina 6-2, 6-2 Thursday. Coleman and sophomore Shavit Kimchi also dropped out of the main draw the same day, both falling on the wrong side of close scores. The three did not have much luck in the consolation draw either, with the Blue Devils losing Friday in uncharacteristically lopsided results. Kimchi was forced to retire from injury in her match against Alina Shcherbinina of Oklahoma.
“It's a grind of a tournament,” Ashworth said. “We need to definitely straighten out some things and keep building off that. No one should be satisfied with this tournament. We’ve got to keep getting better.”
On the doubles side, the two Blue Devil duos won their round of 32 matches Wednesday. Eleana Yu and Jackson continued their reliable partnership with a win over No. 8 Aya El Sayed and Pia Rebec of Colorado 6-4, 6-1. Coleman and Kimchi also won their match in a close ten-point tiebreak 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 against Maya Dutta and Zdena Safarova of Boise State. Both teams, however, fell the following day to top-20 teams in the round of 16.
“Our doubles is not close to where it needs to be to compete at this level. I think it's cliche-ish a little bit, but we're trying to run before we can walk and trying to do things on the doubles court without being able to do some basic things,” Ashworth said.
The team will focus on adjusting their approach to doubles over the next week of practice. Looking ahead, the Blue Devils will return to Chapel Hill for the ITA Regional Championship starting Oct. 17.
“There's some wins that we can definitely be proud of but we shouldn't be satisfied with any of them. We just got to keep building and keep pushing to get better,” Ashworth said.
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