Sunday, July 16, 2017

Cancer survivor Duval advances in Stockton qualies

   Victoria Duval, a former top-100 player who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2014, routed UCLA's Alaina Miller of Saratoga in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-2, 6-1 today in the first round of qualifying for the $60,000 University of the Pacific Stockton Challenger at the Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center.
   Duval, seeded first with a world ranking of No. 440, won 78.3 percent of the points on her first serve (18 or 23) to Miller's 42.4 percent (14 of 33).
   Miller had no aces and eight double faults. On groundstrokes, she uses two hands on both sides.
   Duval, 21, is scheduled to meet fellow American Megan McCray on Monday at 9 a.m. McCray dispatched Magdalena Ekert of Poland 6-1, 6-2.
   Two seeds, both former USC standouts, lost in the opening round. No. 2 Giuliana Olmos of Fremont in the Bay Area fell to Ena Shibahara of UCLA 6-3, 6-2, and No. 6 Kaitlyn Christian bowed out against fellow American Kristina Smith, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3. Christian won the 2013 NCAA doubles title with Sabrina Santamaria.
   Third-seeded Tori Kinard of the United States beat Brienne Minor, the reigning NCAA singles champion from Michigan, 6-2, 7-5.
   Kinard will face Ingrid Neel of reigning NCAA titlist Florida. As a freshman, Neel won the clinching match in the Gators' 4-1 victory over Stanford in the NCAA final in May in Athens, Ga.
   Also advancing today were fifth-seeded Michaela Gordon, a 17-year-old Saratoga resident headed to Stanford; Cal's Olivia Hauger; former Florida star Allie Will of Fairfield; and wild cards Karina Vyrlan and Roos Nederstigt of Pacific.
   The main draw will begin Tuesday. Heading the field are former Stanford teammates Nicole Gibbs and Kristie Ahn. Also entered are 46-year-old Japanese marvel Kimiko Date, who reached No. 4 in the world in 1995, and 15-year-old U.S. phenom Amanda Anisimova.
   Here are the qualifying draw and Monday's schedule.

No comments:

Post a Comment