Michigan
ITA All-American Qualifying
Sugiyama Competes in Singles Qualifying at All-American
10/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Site: Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Riviera Tennis Club)
Event: Riviera/ITA All-American Championships
Scoring: No Team Scoring
Next U-M Match: Thursday, Oct. 18 -- Qualifying at Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships (Varsity Tennis Center)
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- Junior Chisako Sugiyama(Parsippany, N.J./The Montclair Kimberley Academy) of the University of Michigan women's tennis team competed in the singles qualifying round at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships Tuesday (Oct. 2) at the Riviera Tennis Club. Playing for the first time at the prestigious national tournament, Sugiyama opened the day with her 60th career win as a Wolverine. However, Sugiyama was then eliminated in the afternoon's second round match.
The 68th-ranked Sugiyama was unable to hold serve early in her first round match against UNLV's No. 50-ranked Elena Gantcheva, but she found a groove and won six straight games to take the first set, 6-2. Gantcheva gave her a tougher test in the second set, but Sugiyama sustained the intensity and closed out the match with a 7-5 victory. The win marked Sugiyama's 60th overall (60-18) and 25th in tournament play (25-10).
Sugiyama had trouble carrying the momentum into her match against Georgia Tech's No. 64-ranked Whitney McCray. The Yellow Jacket took advantage of a strong service game en route to a convincing 6-2, 6-2 triumph.
Sugiyama will return home and join her teammates at the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships, which Michigan will host Thursday through Tuesday, Oct. 18-23,at the Varsity Tennis Center.
QUOT E S
U-M Head Coach Ronni Bernstein
On today's matches... "Chisako played a very good first set in her first match. She got off to a slow start at the beginning, going down 2-0. But she then reeled off six straight games. (Elena) Gantcheva was a good competitor and changed things up a bit. The match got tight in the second set. Chisako played well, she did what she needed to do. She played aggressively and pulled out a tight second set.
"Her opponent in the second match was really on. She overpowered Chisako a little bit. (Whitney) McCray had a really big serve that was tough to handle and adjust to. She just hit the ball a little harder and played extremely well. Chisako tried to change it up and mix it a little bit, but nothing really seemed to work there."
On what Chisako Sugiyama can take away from the experience... "I think it was a good experience for her to get into a tournament with the top players in the country. There are some things she needs to work on after having played that second match. She needs to work on handling a huge serve and mixing up her game a little bit. Chisako likes to hit the ball and step in, and if someone does it a little bit better, then she needs to be able to go to something else."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
