WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue women's tennis team opened its fall slate on Friday in a pair of tournaments in separate states. The majority of the Boilermakers competed in the opening day of the Purdue Invite at the Schwartz Tennis Center. Meanwhile, Csilla Fodor and Ena Babic represented the Purdue at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic.
In West Lafayette, newcomer duo Nathalia Wolf Gasparin and Nikol Dobrilova teamed up to reach the semifinals of the Gold doubles draw. After a bye in the first round, the pair held off a Miami's Melati Devi and Makenzie Myers to win 8-6.
Alex Sabe and Zala Dovnik picked up an 8-6 victory against Livia Lukacs and Emma Peeler from Ball State in the opening round of the Black doubles draw. The upperclassmen tandem punched its ticket to the semifinals through an 8-7(6) win over Lena Babunski and Milana Lysova from Miami University.
In singles play, Purdue picked up five wins out of six matches. Wolf Gasparin needed three sets to hold off Lysova in the opening match of the Purdue draw, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sabe was cruising to a win in straight sets in the Boilermaker flight against Jovana Peric from Northern Illinois, before the latter retired down 6-2, 4-0.
Zeynep Naz Ozturk downed Lipscomb's Maddox Bandy, 6-3, 6-1, in the Hammer Down flight. Dovnik moved on in the same draw with a 7-5, 6-1 win against Marta Bettinelli of Bowling Green. Dobrilova added to the singles tally when she edged Lukacs, 6-4, 7-6(6), in the Black draw.
Up in Milwaukee, Babic and Fodor came up just short against FAU's Martina Kudelova and Radka Buzkova in the first round of the doubles flight, falling 8-6. Fodor, the No. 1 seed for the singles event, will square off with the University of Miami's Selma Cadar in the second round on Saturday.
Additional Purdue matches on Friday:
PURDUE INVITE
Julia Dmitrieva/Jovana Peric (NIU) def. Seira Shimizu/Ozturk - 8-3
Jillian Millano/Grace Whitney (Wright State) def. Shimizu/Ozturk - 8-1
Devi (Miami - Ohio) def. Shimizu – 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-2
MILWAUKEE TENNIS CLASSIC
No. 80 Daevenia Achong (Miami – Fla.) def. Babic, 6-0, 6-2
Purdue matches scheduled for Saturday:
PURDUE INVITE
Wolf Gasparin/Dobrilova vs. Maia Hamueller/Rhea Verma (Louisville) – Gold Doubles Semifinals
Sabe/Dovnik vs. Aspasia Avgeri/Alina Kuzmenkova (DePaul) – Black Doubles Semifinals
Shimizu/Ozturk vs. Jessica Braun/Rebecca Herrington (Ball State) – Black Doubles Consolation Semifinals
Dobrilova vs. Maria Potsi (NIU) – Black Singles Semifinals
Shimizu vs. Ayumi Sasaki (Bowling Green – Gold Singles Consolation Semifinals
Ozturk vs. Denise Lai (UConn) – Hammer Down Singles Semifinals
Dovnik vs. Dina Chaika (Louisville) – Hammer Down Singles Semifinals
Sabe vs. Amy Kaplan (Ball State) – Boilermaker Singles Semifinals
Wolf Gasparin vs. Nikolina Jovic (Louisville) – Purdue Singles Semifinals