Adachi and Sutjiadi to Compete at ITA Women’s All-American Championships
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – After being tabbed the No. 1 doubles pairing in the Oracle/ITA Division I Preseason Rankings, Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi will travel to Pacific Palisades, California, to compete in the ITA Women’s All-American Championships this week.
Following a first round bye, the top-ranked Wildcat tandem will begin competition Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. ET in a second-round main draw match against the winner of a match-up between Pepperdine’s Mayar Sherif Ahmed/Christine Maddox and Oklahoma State’s Katarina Adamovic/Vladica Babic.
“This All-American tournament is one of the most important collegiate tournaments in the country. Only the very best go there to compete for a title,” said assistant coach Federico Sabogal. “Aldila and Mami worked really hard last year to earn their spot at this event. Being the No. 1 doubles team in the nation, I think this is the best opportunity for them to ratify why they have that number in front of their names.”
Including the UK pairing, nine of the top-10 ranked doubles teams will compete in the All-American tournament. Four pairings from the Southeastern Conference are set to compete in the doubles main draw, including No. 2 Brooke Austin/Kourtney Keagan and No. 19 Belinda Woolcock/Josie Kuhlman of Florida, No. 7 Paige Cline/Hadley Berg of South Carolina, and No. 34 Erin Routliffe/Andie Daniell of Alabama.
Sutjiadi also earned an individual bid into the ITA All-American singles main draw. Sutjiadi is slated to begin singles play Oct. 6 at 2:45 p.m. ET against 14th ranked Kennedy Shaffer of Georgia.
Holding down the No. 23 spot to begin her senior campaign in singles, Sutjiadi was named to the All-SEC First Team last season after earning seven wins over ranked opponents including conference competitors in then-No. 20 Joana Valle Costa of LSU and then-No. 23 Astra Sharma of Vanderbilt. Valle Costa and Sharma have also been selected to compete in the singles main draw.
“I think this will be a special tournament for [Aldila] because it is her last All-American tournament in her career,” added Sabogal. “She definitely has the talent and resources to compete for a title there.”
Sutjiadi will be prepped for high-level league play following the tournament. In total, SEC schools represent 11 of the 24 singles competitors selected to compete in the All-American singles main draw. Three additional SEC players were selected to the main draw alternates list.
Pre-qualifying matches for the tournament were held Oct. 1-2 at Pepperdine University. Qualifying matches were played Oct. 4-5, with four pairing advancing from qualifying to the main draw. Singles and doubles main draw matches will run from Oct. 6-9, culminating with the championship matches on Oct. 9.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s tennis program, follow @UKWomensTennis on Twitter, on Facebook at Facebook.com/UKWomensTennis, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
