Liina Suurvarik and Alesia Mikalayeva of the Illinois State womens tennis team have been selected to participated in the State Farm Womens Tennis Classic February 23-March 3 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Suurvarik, a sophomore from Tallinn, Estonia, is currently ranked No. 107 in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association with a record of 20-4. Mikalayeva, a junior hailing from Minsk, Belarus, has a singles mark of 13-7 and pairs with Suurvarik in doubles play. The duo, ranked No. 14 by the ITA, won the ITA Midwest Regional and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship falling to Kalvaria/Lastra of Stanford, the eventual champions.
Suurvarik received a wild card for the qualifying round of 28 while Mikalayeva is on standby for the qualifying round.
The classic, held at the Scottsdale Fairmont Princess Hotel, features some of the top-ranked players in the world as No. 1 Jennifer Capriati, No. 4 Martina Hingis, No. 5 Kim Clijsters, No. 6 Serena Williams, No. 9 Jelena Dokic and No. 11 Megan Shaugnessey are slated to compete.
As the title sponsor of the State Farm Womens Tennis Classic and a leading supporter of womens athletics, we are proud to be associated with the Womens Tennis Association, said
Jack North, Executive Vice President of Financial Services at State Farm. This makes a nice connection between State Farm and the roots to Illinois State as well as the Bloomington-Normal community.
This is another way State Farm is giving to the community and the students at Illinois State, Illinois State tennis coach Chris Hoover said. This is an incredible opportunity to compete as amateurs in this type of event. We will do our best to represent Illinois State, State Farm and the Bloomington-Normal community in the best possible way we can. I have faith that they (Suurvarik and Mikalayeva) will make everyone proud of the way they compete and conduct themselves.
