RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.10 (Tennis)

Amber wins her match, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3)! #RockChalk

— Kansas Tennis (@KansasTennis) October 27, 2017

A great first day at the Kansas Invitational with everyone getting a win! #RockChalk

A post shared by Kansas Tennis (@kansastennis) on Oct 27, 2017 at 2:57pm PDT

Kansas junior Nina Khmelnitckaia nabbed a total of six wins at the Kansas Invitational to finish undefeated at the tournament hosted by the Jayhawks from October 27 to 29 at the Jayhawk Tennis Center at Rock Chalk Park.
 
Friday, Khmelnitckaia teamed up with fellow KU junior Anastasia Rychagova for a pair of 6-2 doubles victories. First, the duo took down Alex Valenstein and Lana Rush of Texas Tech and then defeated Auburn’s team of Taylor Russo and Jaeda Daniel. In singles, Khmelnitckaia took care of Lana Slavica from Washington with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
 
“I think the past weekend was about how I approached the matches,” said Khmelnitckaia. “I was confident in the way I have prepared myself and how hard the girls pushed me at practices. But more than anything, my goal was to enjoy competing next to my teammates and allow myself to see the results of my hard work.”
 
Playing one doubles and one singles match Saturday, Khmelnitckaia and Rychagova topped UW’s Miki Kobayashi and Vanessa Wong, 6-1. Following that victory, Khmelnitckaia blanked Eva Alexandrova in the first set and prevailed in the second to earn a 6-0, 7-5 win.
 
Facing Rush in singles Sunday, the opponents split sets and played a third-set tiebreaker. Completing her sweep, Khmelnitckaia came out on top, 6-1, 6-7 (7-9), 10-7.
 
Khmelnitckaia and the majority of her Jayhawk teammates will head to the LSU Fall Classic, which will run from November 3 to 5, while Rychagova and Despoina Vogasari will represent Kansas at the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships starting Wednesday.

This will be Vogasari’s third trip to the fall tournament and Rychagova’s, who qualified as the consolation champion at the ITA Women’s All-American, second. The championships serves as the concluding portion of the fall college tennis schedule and is the only ITA event to feature players from all five divisions.
 
“We’re proud of both of them,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “A couple years ago we were excited just to have one player going and now we have two. They’re going to be playing against the best girls in the country and we’re excited to see where they stack up. Since they’ve both been before, they’re over the excitement of just making it and now it’s going out there with the intent to look for success. It’s a big reward for all the work they’ve put in.”
 
The event will run from November 1 to 5 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California.