PACIFIC PALISAIDES, Calif. – Astra Sharma kicked off her debut in the ITA All-American Championships Thursday afternoon with one of the biggest upsets of the day. On one of the biggest stages in collegiate tennis, the redshirt-junior defeated last season’s tournament runner-up and fourth-seed in straight sets.
Kicking off the tournament in the round of 64, No. 21 Sharma was paired up against Miami’s No. 5 Sinead Lohan. The two student-athletes had faced each other once before in 2015, with the Hurricane taking the match in three sets.
However, this competition was all Sharma as the Australian played confident and composed tennis. The Commodore only allowed Lohan one game in the entire first set. Reeling off the loss, the junior out of Waterford, Ireland, powered back into the competition to force a second set tiebreaker.
Having only competed in 10 three set matches last year, “Roo” made sure to come out of top of the tiebreaker, defeating the singles All-American in a close tiebreaker, 6-1, 7-6(6).
“I’m really happy with the way I played today,” said Sharma, “I have so much respect for Sinead (Lohan) as a player. She’s one of the toughest competitors in college tennis, so to get the win was pretty amazing. I thought I played a great first set and to her credit, Sinead came back hard in the second and it was a great battle. I really enjoyed competing and fighting against such a high level player.”
The 2015 NCAA tournament MVP will move on to face UNC’s Sara Daavettila in the round of 32. Sharma/Daavettila will take the court on Friday, Oct. 7th at 12:45 pm CT.
