Tennis off to fast start on first day at KSU

MANHATTAN, Kansas – Juniors Mayori Franco and Ela Kaluder led the University of Arkansas romp through the opening day of the Kansas State Fall Invitational.

“We won a total of seven of nine over Kansas State which was a huge positive,” Hegarty said. “But it was great to see us strong at the end of the day physically. We came here to get in a lot of matches, and we are certainly getting them.”

The Lady Razorbacks open tomorrow’s schedule with doubles against Tulsa at 9:00, then another set of doubles versus Missouri at 10:30. Arkansas will face Tulsa in singles at 2 p.m.

In all, Arkansas played the equivalent of a dual match and a half and sweeping through all the regular doubles matches.

“That might be the best part of the day,” Hegarty said of the doubles sweep.

Franco won the No. 1 singles with KSU by defeating Vivian Yrureta, 6-4, 6-2, then paired with Nanar Airapetian to win the No. 1 doubles over Yrureta and Katka Kuklakova, 8-2. Franco and Airapetian also defeated the Missouri tandem of Kaitlyn McKenzie and Raquel Wagner, 8-2.

Kaluder rolled through her singles match on court two with Olga Klimova of the host Wildcats, 6-4, 6-2. She paired with Audrey Bordeleau to sweep two doubles matches, first over Olga Klimova and Tamar Kvaratshvealia of KSU, 8-1, then defeating Eric Josbena and Amanda Praxel of Missouri, 8-2.

Bordeleau lost against one of the top players in the region at the No. 3 position, but almost upset KSU’s Kvaratshevealia. The Arkansas junior blitzed Kvaratshevealia, 6-1, in the first set, and had her on the ropes in the second before Kvaratshevealia battled back to force a tiebreaker to win the set, 7-6 (7-4). A spent Bordeleau dropped the match with a 6-0 third set.

Rachel Wilhelm swept Kudlakova, 6-3, 6-2, at four singles against KSU. She paired with Stacia Cozirscaia to win the third doubles against both KSU and Missouri. The Arkansas team beat KSU’s Natashia Viera and Teresa Prochazkova, 8-6, then dispatched Missouri’s Kaitlin Dunham and Crissy Svetlic, 9-7.

Airapetian won her singles match with Prochazkova, 7-6 (5), 6-0, while Carly Dixon lost to Viera, 6-4, 7-6 (1), at six.

Arkansas’ only blemish in doubles came in bonus matches for Dixon and Melissa Hoffmeister. The freshman pair lost twice to Tulsa teams, 8-6 to Agustin Santoro and Julie Westfall, then 8-4 to Shalia Diaz-Varriga and Nora Kurich.