Sept. 26, 2011
Philadelphia, Pa. - After three long days of competition, members of the Penn State women's tennis team toughed out a superb finish in the Cissie Leary Invitational. Second-ranked Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) played five rounds of unbeaten tennis as she captured the tournament's singles crown. Januskova and Nina Sertic (Zagrab, Crotia) teamed up to place second in doubles play.
After Januskova received a bye in the first round of singles play she opened the tournament on Friday with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Columbia's Ioana Alesciu. In Sunday's round of 16, Januskova overcame her doubles partner Sertic to advance to the quarterfinal round. The junior continued her stellar play by beating Columbia's Bianca Sanon and fourth-ranked Agustina Eskenazi of Pennsylvania to advance to the singles championship. In the tournament final, Januskova overcame a first set loss to third-ranked Nicole Bartnik of Columbia to win the title, 2-6, 6-2, 10-8.
In doubles action, Sertic made the most of her debut as a Nittany Lion. The recent Kansas State transfer teamed up with Januskova to place second. The number one ranked pair received a bye in the opening round of 32, but showed no signs of rust in the round of 16 as they bested Christine Ordway and Gabby Sullivan of Cornell, 8-4. Januskova and Sertic stormed by Katarina Kovacevic and Crystal Leung of Columbia and fourth-ranked Ana Belzunce and Jordan Hansbrough of Maryland to reach the doubles final. However, third-ranked Agustina Eskenazi and Jaime Yapp-Shing, bested the pair in the doubles championship, 4-8.
In the singles consolation bracket, Fernanda Perrotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) advanced to the semifinal round after beating Maryland's Jordan Hansbrough in the backdraw 2-0, retired.
Penn State will continue its fall tournament play at the Rice Invitational in Houston, Texas from Oct. 7 through Oct. 9. In addition, the Nittany Lions will send Januskova to the All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. which runs from Oct. 1 through Oct. 9.