Nov. 3, 2016
FLUSHING, N.Y. – Sydney Campbell and Astra Sharma of the Vanderbilt women’s tennis team kicked off competition in New York Thursday morning in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, going undefeated to move on to Friday’s round of 16.
Facing the fifth-ranked player in the nation in Florida’s Belinda Woolcock, No. 21 Sharma downed the Gator in three sets in her NIIC debut. Sharma relied on her powerful serve throughout Thursday’s round of 32 match, acing Woolcock five times and accumulating a 96% second serve percentage. With the 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory, the redshirt-junior is 2-0 against Woolcock and undefeated against Florida.
“I’m really happy with my mental resilience today,” said Sharma. “I didn’t necessarily play my best tennis at times, but really kept a good attitude and just tried to hang in there and keep being aggressive, which worked really well in the end. I think our game style is actually pretty similar so today it came down to doing the little things better like first serve percentage and winners to errors ratio.”
The fifth-seeded Aussie faces another SEC opponent in Auburn’s No. 25 Alizee Michaud. Tomorrow’s matchup will be the first contest between Sharma and Michaud.
While Sharma powered back into competition after faltering in her second set, it was smooth sailing for No. 19 Campbell. The Franklin, Tenn. native’s contest against Pepperdine’s No. 48 Mayar Ahmed went smoothly, as Campbell only gave up four games to the junior. Campbell aced Ahmed twice, while saving three break points and breaking serve five times.
“It was a tough match for me today with a lot of deuce points,” said Campbell. “I had to be really mentally tough and pull out some close games. But this is one of my favorite tournaments of the year because we play at the Billie Jean King Center and NYC is great in general. So glad to be back here for my senior year.”
With No. 72 Lily Myazaki upsetting UNC’s six seed Sara Daavettila in three sets, Campbell continues competition against Oklahoma’s Miyazaki Friday morning.
For a behind the scenes look at the ‘Dores trip in the Big Apple, follow @VandyWTennis on Twitter.
