As the H-E-B Women’s Pro Tennis Open enters the quarterfinals on Friday, we have only two seeded players left in the singles draw.
After Grace Min, seeded No. 3, got knocked out of the competition on Thursday, Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva is the highest remaining seed at No. 4. The 18-year-old from Andorra will be playing 26-year-old Martina Okalova from Slovakia at the Texas Tennis Center. During Thursday’s cold conditions, Jimenez beat Mary Stoiana, 6-4, 6-0. Okalova defeated Clervie Ngounoue, last year’s finalist, 6-2, 6-1.
Jimenez Kasintseva said she was able to adapt to the difficult and changing conditions.
“That’s something about tennis,” she said. “I mean, every day is different, literally. … I’m just happy with how I felt today.”
Ellie Douglas defeated Min, 6-4, 6-0, and will now face 25-year-old Hanna Chang, the No. 6 seeded player from Fontana, California. Chang rallied to defeat Stefani Webb, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.
At the top of the draw are Catherine Harrison, a 29-year-old wild card from Germantown, Tennessee (pictured above), and Madison Sieg, a 20-year-old from Greenwich, Connecticut. Harrison beat Mao Mushika 6-3, 6-4, and Sieg dominated Ava Markham 6-4, 6-2.
When asked about her key to success, Harrison said it was her serve.
“If I didn’t serve well, I wouldn’t have won,” she said. “If I didn’t serve well, I really wasn’t getting a read on the return at all, so that’s definitely the key.”
Ashley Lahey, who smashed Nicole Rivkin by 6-0, 6-4 on Thursday, will face Chloe Beck, who won against Ayumi Miyamoto, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Lahey and Beck open play on Court 5 at 11 a.m.
The top-seeded doubles pair of Kozyreva and Lahey will be facing No. 3 Beck and Harrison. Kozyreva and Lahey barely got past Mia Kupres and Mary Stoiana on Thursday, 6-4, 2-6, 15-13. Beck and Harrison defeated Anita Sahdiieva and Sahaja Yamalapalli in a far easier match, 6-3, 6-0 on Thursday.
Taisiya Pachkaleva and Rivkin knocked out No. 2 Maria Kononova and Markham, 5-7, 6-1, 19-17. Pachkaleva and Rivkin, a Longhorn player, will take on another unseeded team: Han Jiangxue and Huang Yujia, who rallied past Martha Matoula and Okalova, 2-6, 6-3, 10-4.
Article and photograph by Bevo Video Productions, a division of Texas Student Media at UT-Austin’s Moody College of Communication.
Check out the bios of the H-E-B Women’s Pro Open players.