Redbirds Play Strong On Day 2 Of Redbird Invite

NORMAL, Ill. – It was another hot day of action at the Gregory Street Courts, as the Illinois State women's tennis hosted eight other teams on day two of the Redbird Invite. The Redbirds advanced to the championship match in two flights of doubles and had two players advance to the championship match in singles on Sunday.

"We continued with solid doubles play today with two good wins," ISU head coach Maja Kovacek said. "Both matches that didn't go our way were very close and we were doing the right things out there. I'm happy with singles as well. We are getting out and competing hard and we came away with two tough match tiebreak wins."

Doubles matches got things started once again, with the No. 1 doubles team of Tijana Zlatanovic and Maria Potsi defeating Maletin and Hailey of Bradley by a score of 8-5 to advance to the championship match tomorrow. The duo of Laura Fitzgerald and Alexandra Abyasova took down their opponents from DePaul in Flight No. 3 by a score of 8-7 (5) to advance to the title match as well. 

Following doubles play, singles action started with Zlatanovic winning again in Flight No. 1 to advance to the championship match Sunday. Jankulovska also advanced in the winner's bracket in Flight No. 5 in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. Abyasova won her match in the consolation bracket to advance to the consolation championship, and Tara Damnjanovic, Penelope Abreu and Laura Fitzgerald each advanced due to withdraws. 

The invitational will wrap up Sunday with the same schedule, beginning at 9 a.m. with doubles then singles. 

Day 2 Results

Singles
No. 1 -     Tijana Zlatanovic (ISU) def. N. Hesham (SLU) 6-3, 5-7, 10-8
No. 2 -     Alexandra Abyasova (ISU) def. Y. Kizelbasheva (DU) 7-5, 4-6, 10-3
No. 3 -     Tara Damnjanovic (ISU) adv. M. Andrade (BU) w/o
No. 5 -     Elena Jankulovska (ISU) def. T. Windbuchler (MU) 6-1, 6-2
No. 6 -     Penelope Abreu (ISU) adv. L. Morgoshia (CSU) w/o
No. 7 -     Laura Fitzgerald (ISU) adv. D. Borodina (CSU) w/o

Doubles
No. 1 -     Zlatanovic/Potsi (ISU) def. Maletin/Hailey (BU) 8-5
No. 2 -     Hesham/Mintusova (SLU) def. Damnjanovic/Abreu (ISU) 8-6
No. 3 -     Fitzgerald/Abyasova (ISU) def. Nobbs/Martin (DU) 8-7 (5)
No. 4 -     Park/Lee (UC) def. Rand (DU)/Jankulovska (ISU) 8-7 (6)
    
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