MASON, Ohio. — The Kentucky women’s tennis squad had two qualifiers for the NCAA Singles Championship this afternoon at the Linder Family Tennis Center. Julia Zhu dominated to clinch her spot and Donna Le Roux defeated teammate Asuncion Jadue narrowly to advance to NCAAs and the ITA Regional final.
Home of the Cincinnati Open, the Linder Family Tennis Center was painted blue on Tuesday. Three of the four ITA Regional semifinalists wore blue and white, which meant that the Wildcats would have at least one NCAA qualifier on the day.
Zhu, a senior, clinched her first ever NCAA Singles berth in convincing fashion. She defeated Lipscomb’s Mariia Dolzhenko 6-0, 6-1 in a little over an hour.
On the other court, the two Wildcats of Jadue and Le Roux battled one another in a back-and-forth match. Jadue took the first set 7-6(6), Le Roux bounced back and took the second (6-2) and third (6-4) over her teammate, finishing the match in bittersweet fashion for them both.
Now qualified for the NCAA Singles Championship, Zhu and Le Roux will take things easy for singles competitions until the championship on Nov. 17-22 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Jadue and the rest of the Wildcats will return to play on Nov. 5 at ITA Sectionals, hosted by Tennessee. There will be more bids to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship up for grabs, with the four semifinalists in singles and two finalists in doubles qualifying.
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