The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Baylor
No. 6 Women's Tennis preview: at Baylor
04.09.2019 | Women's Tennis
The Longhorns travel to Waco to face the Bears on Wednesday (Noon CT).
No. 6 Texas (13-3, 6-0 Big 12) at Baylor (7-18, 1-5 Big 12)
When: Wednesday, April 10 (12 p.m. CT)
Where: Hurd Tennis Center (Waco, Texas)
2019 Texas Dual-Match Statistics
Match Notes
Baylor Series: Wednesday's contest marks the 52nd meeting between Texas and Baylor. The Longhorns hold a 33-18 advantage in the all-time series. Last year, the Longhorns went 2-0 against the Bears. Texas registered a 4-0 sweep in Austin during the regular season (April 20, 2018) and added a 4-1 victory in Austin in the Big 12 Championship semifinals (April 28, 2018).
Last Time Out: Texas recorded an impressive 6-1 victory against No. 29 Texas Tech (15-6, 5-2 Big 12) at the Weller Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon (April 7). The match, which marked the final home regular-season appearance for UT's lone senior Katie Poluta, was moved indoors due to inclement weather. Texas grabbed an early 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point, as Petra Granic/Tijana Spasojevic won 6-3 at second doubles and Anna Turati/Bianca Turati won 6-4 at first doubles. The Longhorns then recorded five straight-set wins in singles from Bojana Markovic, Poluta, Granic, Turati and Fernanda Labraña.
Team Rankings: Texas is No. 6 in the latest Oracle ITA Collegiate Division I team national rankings (April 9) and No. 7 in the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis poll (April 3). Baylor is not ranked in either major poll.
Individual Rankings: Four UT singles players and one doubles pair are featured in the latest Oracle/ITA national rankings (April 9). Junior All-American Bianca Turati (No. 29), junior Anna Turati (No. 41), junior Petra Granic (No. 55) and sophomore Bojana Markovic (No. 123) all appear in the singles rankings. The tandem of Anna Turati and Bianca Turati is No. 55 in doubles.
FORZA Bianca: Junior All-American Bianca Turati holds a 9-5 mark at first singles in dual-match action this spring, with six of the wins coming against nationally-ranked opponents. She recorded straight-set victories against No. 59 Clarissa Hand of Northwestern (6-1, 6-4) on Feb. 8, No. 66 Michaela Haet of Rice (6-0, 6-3) on Feb. 24 and No. 54 Asuka Kawai of Illinois (6-3, 6-2) on March 19. Turati earned the decisive point in UT's 4-3 home win against No. 16 Kansas (March 24) with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 victory against No. 23 Anastasia Rychagova. She also registered a 6-1, 6-3 win against No. 19 Oleksandra Korashvil (Oklahoma) on March 29 and a 6-4, 6-2 victory against No. 27 Katarina Stresnakova (Oklahoma State) on March 31.
Bianca Claims Back-to-Back Big 12 Honors: Bianca Turati claimed Big 12 Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week honors on March 26 and April 2. She earned the March 26 accolade after posting a 3-0 mark at No. 1 singles and a 2-0 record at No. 2 doubles to lead the Longhorns to dual-match wins against No. 34 Illinois, No. 36 K-State and No. 16 Kansas. Turati returned to claim the April 2 honor after registering a 2-0 mark at No. 1 singles and a 2-0 mark at No. 2 doubles to lead the Longhorns to dual-match road wins against No. 30 Oklahoma and No. 9 Oklahoma State. All four of her wins against OU and OSU came against nationally-ranked opponents.
Bianca is Back: Bianca Turati claimed the No. 1 spot in the fall preseason ITA national singles rankings (Sept. 11, 2018). The 2018 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, she posted a 28-4 overall singles mark and ended her sophomore season at No. 3 in the final Oracle/ITA Division I singles rankings. Turati spent nearly three months atop the ITA women's singles rankings and produced a 16-2 dual-match record for the Longhorns at the No. 1 singles position in 2018. She became the first UT player to top the ITA singles rankings since Kelly Pace in 1995.
Anna on a Roll: Junior Anna Turati enters Wednesday's match against Baylor sporting a 12-match win streak in singles play. Ten of the 12 victories during her streak have come in straight sets. Included in the win streak are straight-set victories against No. 72 Julie Byrne of Northwestern (6-3, 7-5) on Feb. 8, No. 46 Melissa Lord of Stanford (6-3, 6-3) on Feb. 10 and No. 101 Janet Koch of Kansas (6-3, 6-4) on March 24. Turati is 13-2 at second singles in dual-match play this spring.
Steady Petra: Junior Petra Granic is 9-1 in dual-match singles action this spring (all at the No. 3 spot). She registered an impressive 6-3, 6-3 victory against No. 61 Jessica Failla of Pepperdine on March 16. Eight of her nine singles wins in dual-match play have come in straight sets. Granic claimed the clinching point during UT's 5-2 win at No. 9 Oklahoma State (March 31), recording a dramatic 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2) victory against No. 117 Bunyawi Thamchaiwat at third singles (after trailing 5-4 in the third set).
Granic Earns Big 12 Honor: Petra Granic earned Big 12 Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week honors on Jan. 22. She posted five consecutive wins en route to capturing the singles title at the prestigious Freeman Memorial Championships in Las Vegas (Jan. 18-20). During the three-day tourney, Granic dropped just one set in her five singles matches. The tourney featured players from six of the top 11 teams in the nation, including No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 North Carolina, No. 7 Pepperdine, No. 8 UCLA and No. 11 Florida in addition to host UNLV.
Senior Spark in Singles: Senior Katie Poluta is 11-1 in dual-match singles this spring while seeing action at both the No. 5 (3-0) and No. 6 (8-1) spots in the lineup. Poluta rallied for an impressive 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 win against No. 37 Janice Shin of Stanford at fifth singles on Feb. 10. She enters Wednesday's contest sporting a six-match win streak, with all six victories coming in straight sets.
Twin Power in Doubles: Junior twin sisters Anna Turati and Bianca Turati have been solid this spring as a doubles team. The duo has posted a 10-2 mark at the No. 1 (2-0), No. 2 (6-1) and No. 3 (2-1) spots. The Turati twins recorded a 6-2 win against No. 78 Martina Capurro and Camila Romero of Oklahoma (March 29) and followed with a 7-6 (8-6) victory against Oklahoma State's No. 68 tandem of Marina Guinart and Katarina Stresnakova (March 31). The twins played at the top doubles line for the first time in their collegiate career on April 5 against TCU's No. 42-ranked team of Ellie Douglas and Aleksa Cbeticanin and registered an impressive 6-2 win.
Big 12 Preseason Favorite: Texas is picked to win the Big 12 Conference title in a preseason vote of the league coaches, the conference office announced Jan. 8. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams. UT claimed the top spot in the poll, earning seven of a possible nine first-place votes and 79 points in polling for the 2019 season. Kansas received three first-place votes and 73 points to place second, while Oklahoma State was tabbed third with 63 points. Rounding out the poll in descending order were: Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Iowa State and West Virginia.
2018 in Review: The Longhorns posted a 24-5 overall dual-match record during the 2018 season and advanced to the NCAA Championship Round of 16. UT earned its highest final team ITA ranking (No. 6) since 2005. The Longhorns registered a 9-0 mark in Big 12 Conference play and won their first outright Big 12 regular-season title since 2004 and first Big 12 postseason tournament title since 2013.
What Returns: Texas returns a talented and experienced lineup that includes one senior (Katie Poluta), three juniors (Petra Granic, Anna Turati and Bianca Turati) and two sophomores (Fernanda Labraña and Bojana Markovic) from last year's squad. Sophomore Marta Perez-Mur will redshirt the 2019 season after suffering a right knee injury during fall competition. The Longhorns add freshman Tijana Spasojevic (Belgrade, Serbia), who was ranked as high as No. 836 in the WTA singles rankings.
Joffe in Year Four: Head Coach Howard Joffe is in his fourth season leading the UT program. Joffe has registered a 67-26 (.720) mark in his four years at Texas and a 198-87 (.695) record in 12 seasons as a collegiate head coach. He earned 2018 Big 12 Conference and ITA Texas Region Coach of the Year honors, leading the Longhorns to the program's first outright Big 12 regular-season title since 2004 and first Big 12 tourney title since 2013.
Players Mentioned
