Longhorn women’s tennis All-American Bianca Turati secured the singles title at the International Tennis Federation pro circuit 15k tournament in Hilton Head, South Carolina, this past weekend.
The junior captured the title Sunday morning after defeating Michaela Bayerlova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-0), 6-2. With the victory, Turati now holds three ITF pro circuit singles championship titles, all from this year.
“I played a really good match yesterday in the final,” Turati said. “I was down 5-2 and I had to face two set points in the first set, but I’m glad that I found a way to turn the match around and to win the set and the match.”
After fighting off the pair of set points, Turati was able to hold serve to get herself to 5-3. Throughout the rest of the match, she continued to showcase the grit and stamina that helped win her previous two championships in August.
Turati broke Bayerlova after holding serve again, tying the set at 5-5. Coming off this momentum, the Longhorn won all seven points in the tiebreaker after both players held serve, which lead her to a victory in the opening set.
Turati said the key to her win, in addition to better serving, was her ability to “swing hard at the ball and play more aggressive.
The match continued to be an uphill battle in the beginning of the second set. Turati and Bayerlova were tied at 1-1 until Turati won three consecutive games and gained a 4-1 advantage. Turati once again held serve after Bayerlova got the score to 4-2 and broke the Czech Republic player for the fourth time in the match to secure the championship win.
“She always represents The University of Texas in such a first-class manner,” Texas associate head coach Taylor Fogleman said. “The biggest takeaway from this week is the fact that Bianca didn’t quite have her best stuff, yet she still found a way to the title.”
Turati is now on her way to Charleston to begin competing at the ITF 25k event in Charleston, South Carolina. She is scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Many other Longhorn athletes are currently competing in Pacific Palisades, California, at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships.
On Saturday, the Longhorns went 6-1 overall with three of the victories coming from freshman Tijana Spasojevic, who recorded two singles wins and one doubles win with partner sophomore Marta Perez-Mur.
The Longhorns didn’t perform as well on Sunday. Spasojevic had the only win of the day in a singles match against Pepperdine’s Adrijana Lekaj in which she won 6-2, 6-1. This victory earned her a spot in the singles qualifying stage, which begins Tuesday.
