University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Oracle ITA Masters
Hart Takes Runner-Up Spot at Oracle ITA Masters
September 29, 2019 | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. โ UCLA women's tennis redshirt senior Jada Hart finished as the singles runner-up at the fifth annual Oracle ITA Masters event, played at the Malibu Racquet Club and Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on the campus of Pepperdine. The event also featured the debut of freshman Abbey Forbes, who reached the singles semifinals.
The fifth-seeded and ninth-ranked Hart tallied wins against the nation's No. 1 player and the tournament's top seed on the way to her fourth match in three years against Ashley Lahey of Pepperdine in the final. Her run would end there. The players alternated five holds of serve before Lahey took over down the stretch for a 6-3, 6-0 victory and a berth in November's 2019 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Newport Beach, Calif.
Hart got started with a near-flawless Fall 2019 debut against Rachel Papavasilopoulos of Eastern Illinois, who she dispatched of by a 6-1, 6-0 score. The second round was more of the same, as Hart defeated Winthrop's Alisa Soloveva, 6-2, 6-0.
The quarterfinals saw a rematch of May's NCAA Championships quarterfinal showdown between Hart and Katarina Jokic of Georgia that went to the Bulldog in three sets. While this chapter between the players would also go three sets, it would have a different result. Jokic, No. 1 in the Oracle ITA preseason rankings, won the first set only to see Hart counter and force the deciding third. There, the match would fittingly end in a tiebreaker, which the Bruin took by a 7-5 score.
With a win against the nation's No. 1 player in the books, Hart next took on the tournament's No. 1 seed, Virginia freshman Natasha Subhash. Hart's run to the final would not be slowed, though, as the redshirt senior rolled to a 6-2, 6-1 victory to set an all-SoCal final. Forbes did not disappoint in her first action as the second seeded Blue-Chip talent won her first collegiate match without dropping a game to Fairfield's Amanda Nowak.
Facing off against her first nationally-ranked opponent in the second round, Forbes again shined, dispatching of No. 31 Paola Delgado by a 6-1, 6-1 score. Later that day, the Bruin returned to action in the quarterfinals, where she showed her resiliency against 17th-ranked Anna Turati of Texas. Down 4-1 in the opening set, Forbes responded by taking the next five games and momentum into the second frame of the best-of-three match.
The journey would end for Forbes in the semifinals, where she fell to Lahey in a hard-fought duel. Ultimately, the veteran proved too strong, seizing a 6-4, 6-3 win and a spot in the final.
The event also featured a mixed-doubles tournament, which saw the Bruins seeded first and second in the draw. An all-Bruin tandem of Forbes and UCLA men's tennis standout Keegan Smith was the top seed, while a team made up of crosstown rivals Hart and USC's Daniel Cukierman was seeded No. 2. Matches were a single set.
The teams surrendered just one game between them in the first round before each turned in a 6-2 second-round victory. Hart and Cukierman saw their journey end in a close one against eventual champion Sven Lah/ Subhash (Baylor/Virginia), 7-6(2). Forbes/Smith would make it one round further, defeating Jack Lin/Luliia Bryzgalova (Columbia/Penn), 6-4, before bowing out against Juan Carlos Aguilar/Jokic (Texas A&M/Georgia) by an 8-6 score in the semfinals.
Players Mentioned
