W. tennis star Krishnamurthy wins two matches at ITA Championships

With the U.S. Open a distant memory and the 2000 professional Grand Slam events now long concluded, the collegiate version of tennis' major individual championships took center stage last week in Pacific Palisades, Calif., at the Riviera Women's All-American Championship.

The event, which was the second leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Grand Slam, featured most of the nation's top collegiate tennis players — including Princeton sophomore Kavitha Krishnamurthy.

Krishnamurthy, ranked 36th nationally in a preseason poll, won her first two qualifying matches before losing her third match, thus failing to make it into the tournament's 32-player main draw.

With a 64-player prequalifying draw held before the 64-player qualifying draw, entrance into the tournament's main draw was a formidable task for those — like Krishnamurthy — looking to earn one of four at-large spots into the main draw. Krishnamurthy, seeded No. 4 in the qualifying draw, did not need to go through prequalifying rounds.

Battling illness, Krishnamurthy defeated UCLA's Catherine Hawley, 6-3, 6-3, in her first qualifying match Tuesday, before gutting out a tough 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Kentucky's Brooke Skeen in her second match of the day. With the win, Krishnamurthy was one victory away from entering the tournament's main draw.

In the final round of qualifying, Krishnamurthy's run ended, however. Virginia Commonwealth's Martina Nedelkova — whom Krishnamurthy had previously defeated at ITA Regionals last year — beat the Tiger sophomore, 6-0, 6-4.

"In the first set, I was just really out of it," Krishnamurthy said. "The second set was definitely much closer. I was up 2-1 and had a few opportunities to break to 3-1."

Against Skeen, Krishnamurthy controlled the tempo from the outset, but was unable to put away the Wildcat junior. Krishnamurthy held leads of 3-0 and 5-2 in the first set before closing out the set at 6-4.

In the second set, Skeen battled back from a 4-3 deficit to push Princeton's No. 1 player to a decisive third set.

"At the beginning of the match I thought I was dominating, but she never gave up," Krishnamurthy said. "She kept on scraping and scraping."

Considering it was questionable how she would perform — having had the flu and a slight ear infection during the week — Krishnamurthy's performance was far from disappointing.

"I'm happy that I played," she said. "I really thought I was playing well under the circumstances. I think playing under those conditions will only help me in the long run."

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Krishnamurthy indicated that overall she was pleased with her serve, having translated the success she had at the Eastern College Athletic Championships Oct. 13-14, to the Riviera All-American.

While the sophomore also said she was happy with her ground strokes — which are the strength of her game — she indicated that she needed to add another weapon to her arsenal. In the coming weeks, Krishnamurthy will try to implement more of a net game, taking advantage of opportunities to come into net and create easy volleys.

In the previous ITA women's Grand Slam tournament — the T. Rowe Price National Clay Court Championships held in Baltimore last month — Krish-namurthy lost in the round of 16 to the tournament's eventual winner, Wake Forest's Bea Bielik.

The winner at Riviera this weekend was Duke freshman Ansley Cargill, who defeated Georgia's Aarthi Venkatesan — the tournament's top seed — 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

Krishnamurthy and women's tennis — which is coming off a semifinal loss at ECACs — will be back in action Friday, hosting Temple.