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Fish and Bertrand Take Second in USTA Event 7/18/2005 Two Commodores won matches in the USTA Women’s Satellite Tour of Baltimore last week — an event that boasted 32 young, up-and-coming women’s tennis players, both amateur and professional. Junior Amanda Fish (Scituate, Mass.) and sophomore Taka Bertrand (Great Falls, Va.) each competed in the singles draw and the duo teamed up in the doubles portion finishing second to top-seeded Beau Jones and Petra Rampre. “It was a lot of fun,” Fish said. “It was really good experience to play against the people who do that for a living. There is another level out there that I can compete with.” Fish and Bertrand lost their first doubles set 6-3 to the Russian tandem of Kelly Anderson and Alicia Pillay and then did not lose another set until the final. In their second match the Commodore team knocked off the No. 4 seeded pair of Katherine Baker and Claire Peterzan of Great Britain, 7-5, 6-4. The $10,000 prize was awarded to top-seeded Jones and Rampre, who were ranked No. 865 on the USTA Pro Circuit before entering the match, after they defeated Fish and Bertrand 6-3, 7-5. “It was an advantage that Taka and I had played together for the entire year,” Fish said. “It worked out really well. We know each other’s games pretty well and we know what each other is and isn’t going to do, so that really helped.” In the singles portion the Vanderbilt student-athletes were also met with success posting a combined 4-2 record. Fish easily handled Raluca Ciulei, 6-0, 6-1 in the first round. She then won each of her next two matches 6-3, 7-6 (5), the latter against the No. 7 seed and 648th-ranked Nicole Leimbach. Fish fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Madison Brengle in three tough sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Bertrand also defeated a ranked opponent when she defeated No 742 Mariana Correa 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. She fell in the second round 6-0, 6-3 to Christina Fusano, who was ranked No. 540 and seeded fourth in the main draw before the tournament. |
