ATLANTA--Georgia State junior
Abigail Tere-Apisah begins competition on Thursday in the main draw at the 2012
Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championship hosted at the Riviera Tennis Club
in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Tere-Apisah
begins play on Thursday morning at 10:45 a.m. PDT against Caroline Price of UNC. Price, a left-handed player who hails from nearby Duluth, Ga., is the daughter of standout NBA and Georgia Tech guard Mark Price. Carolina Price advanced to the main draw by winning three matches in the qualifying round, including one against seventh-seeded qualifier Ludmila Vasilieva of Washington State in straight sets. Tere-Apisah is in the same bracket as main draw seeds Mary Anne Macfarlane (#7) of Alabama and Zoe Scandalis (#4) of USC.
The
annual event invites the nation's best players in Division I women's college
tennis to compete in the pre-qualifying, qualifying and main draw sections of
the prestigious tournament. Pre-qualifying matches began on Saturday, Sept. 29
at UCLA with qualifying matches spanning Oct. 2-3. The main draw is played at
the Riviera Tennis Club from Oct. 4-7.
Tere-Apisah
earned entry into the main draw of the tournament, in essence giving her a bye through
the pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds, by earning ITA All-American status
last season at the 2012 NCAA Women's Singles Championship. She was the first
tennis player in GSU history to earn the honor and one of 24 players in the
country to earn an invite to the main draw.
The
prize each participant is striving for is an automatic entry into the USTA/ITA
National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships held at the USTA Billie Jean King
National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., from Nov. 8-11. Singles semifinalists
and consolation champions will receive automatic entry into the prestigious
tournament, which is the only ITA tournament to showcase elite players from
every level of college tennis.
This
year's Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships features seven student-athletes
ranked in the top 10. A total of 12 returning ITA Singles All-Americans,
including Tere-Apisah, are slated to compete for the tournament title. Past
winners of the tournament have moved on to successful careers on the WTA Tour
with many achieving top 100 rankings in the world.
Pre-qualifying
featured a singles draw of 64 players. Each player needed to win three rounds
in order to advance to the qualifying draw. In total, eight singles players
advanced to the qualifying round. The qualifying rounds are also comprised of a
singles draw of 64, adding in the eight players advancing from pre-qualifying.
Just as with pre-qualifying, a singles player must win three consecutive
matches to stay alive and move into the main draw from the qualifying round.
Eight spots in the singles main draw are reserved for qualifiers.
The
ITA Women's All-American Championships features three nationally-ranked singles
players that took the courts at the Sharon Lester Tennis Center last weekend in
the Southern Shootout, hosted by Georgia State. Tere-Apisah will be joined in
the main draw by NC State's Joelle Kissell (No. 19) while USF's Ecaterina
Vasenina (No. 29) competed in the qualifying draw.
Fans
can follow the action with live scoring and a live chat courtesy of
ITAtennis.com. Follow the Georgia State women's tennis team on Twitter at
"@GSUWTennis," or the ITA at "@ITAtennis," for updates and news from Pacific
Palisades.
www.GeorgiaStateSports.com
