California Team Page
URBANA, Ill. - California's Zsofi Susanyi defeated UNLV's Lucia Batta in Thursday's NCAA Singles Championship round of 32 to advance to Friday's round of 16 at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex/Atkins Tennis Center. Golden Bear freshman Klara Fabikova, however, ended her season with a Thursday loss.
As on Wednesday, rain delayed play and in some case moved matches indoors on Thursday. Fabikova - ranked 43rd in singles - played in the first match to conclude outdoors on day two at NCAA singles. She fell to Nebraska's 11th-ranked Mary Weatherholt, 6-2, 6-1.
"Klara's had a tremendous year," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "She learned a lot. She played against a senior and a seeded player today. Klara wasn't expected to win that match. Klara probably didn't play as well as she would've liked to today. She won 30-something matches and played pretty high for us, working her way up and improving throughout the year in singles and doubles. It will be interesting to see what her final ranking is because she had some big wins here in the team event.
"It really bodes well for next season. I'm really proud of the season she had in her first year, and she's doing really well in school as well.
Playing later in the day, and starting roughly 90 minutes after her slated start time, the fifth-seeded and ranked Susanyi posted a 6-3, 6-4, victory over Batta outdoors.
"This is a girl she's familiar with, who's from Hungary as well," Augustus said of Budapest-native Batta. "Zsofi (from Szeged, Hungary) was in control of the match the whole time. The weather was tough on both players; it was very windy today. There've been a lot of interesting scores because it's who handles the conditions better. It'll be interesting to see tomorrow and as tournament goes on what the conditions will be; the weather's supposed to get better. It becomes a physical and mental test, and Zsofi's mentally tough."
The Cal sophomore will play Clemson's 16th-ranked Yana Koroleva in the round of 16. Koroleva advanced after beating North Carolina's 49th-ranked Zoe De Bruycker, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, on Thursday.
