Four women’s tennis players will wrap up their fall season at this weekend’s Texas Invitational, which will take place at the Texas Tennis Center from Nov. 1-3.
Junior Fernanda Labraña, sophomores Marta Perez Mur and Tijana Spasojevic and freshman Gabby Cusano will compete in the singles draw as well as the doubles draw.
Six teams will be at the tournament, most notably rival Texas A&M, who took down Texas at the NCAA tournament last season. Miami (Florida), Rice, SMU and Tennessee will also be in attendance.
The Texas Invitational will be the second tournament in a row held at the Texas Tennis Center after the H-E-B Women’s Pro Tennis Open last weekend. Seniors Anna and Bianca Turati took home the doubles title and Bianca took home the singles title at the H-E-B Open.
“Playing at home in front of our fans is always a treat and an honor,” Anna Turati said. “It just feels special to play in front of the fans.”
The two, along with freshman Lexi Ryngler, won’t be participating this weekend, however, with Anna Turati and Ryngler heading to the ITA National Championships Nov. 6 and Bianca Turati playing in a professional 25K tournament in Malibu, California, on Nov. 4.
As the fall season nears its end, the Longhorns, backed by several strong performances, are still in the position to be in championship contention in the spring.
Ryngler made the finals at the ITA Texas Regionals with a statement victory over No. 28 Katya Townsend of Texas A&M and qualified for the ITA National Championships in Newport Beach, California.
Anna Turati fell to No. 4 Alexa Graham of North Carolina in the semifinals of the ITA All-Americans. But she bested the No. 2, No. 7, No. 22 and No. 45-ranked players before falling to Graham to qualify.
Anna and Ryngler’s matches in Newport Beach will be the last for the women’s tennis program of the fall.
Head coach Howard Joffe said the Longhorns had an impressive fall thus far, but there is still room for improvement.
“I’ve been pretty pleased with our fall so far,” Joffe said. “We’ve made good steps forward as a team working on our accountability and discipline, but it’s still a really big aspect of our game we need to focus on every day.”
