Tigu advances to second round of individuals

November 6, 2014

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Senior Anouk Tigu scored a win in her first round match at the NCAA Women’s Singles Championship on Wednesday night, 6-4, 6-4 over Petra Niedermayerova (24-10) of Kansas State at the Taube Tennis Center on the Stanford campus. The win is Tigu’s second of her career in the tournament and puts her in the second round where she will face the winner of Brynn Boren of Tennessee and Kristie Ahn of Stanford.

“Today was an encouraging opening round performance,” said Arkansas head coach Michael Hegarty. “Anouk (Tigu) was down in both sets and raised her level to come away with a strong win.”

The win for Tigu is her 26th of the season in singles and even though she was able to win it in straight sets, the All-SEC honoree had to make a small comeback in each set to get the victory. Down 3-1 in the first set, Tigu battled back and actually broke Niedermayerova’s serve in the seventh game to take the 4-3 lead. She would end up winning the final five games to take the set 6-4.

In the second set, neither player was able to hold serve early and Niedermayerova again had a 3-1 lead. She would hold her lead at 4-3 before Tigu finally held serve to tie it up at 4-all. The Holland native would follow that up by breaking Niedermayerova’s serve for the third straight time to take the lead and then sweeping through the tenth game for the 6-4 second set win.

Tigu will go for her 27th win of the season on Thursday as she will play the winner of the late match between Brynn Boren of Tennessee and Kristie Ahn of Stanford. If she wins, she will advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Women’s Individual Singles Championship for the first time in her career.

Tigu and sophomore Claudine Paulson will also begin their doubles quest on Thursday with their first match of the NCAA Women’s Individual Doubles Championship.

For complete coverage of the two Hog athletes‘ runs through the tournaments as well as the rest of the Razorback women’s tennis team through the summer, check in with ArkansasRazorbacks.com.