Women’s tennis duo heads to ITA nationals


Nationally ranked · Senior Giuliana Olmos currently ranks No. 10 in the nation in singles. She had a standout season for the Women of Troy last spring and finished the year as an ITA All-American.  - Brian Ji | Daily Trojan

Nationally ranked · Senior Giuliana Olmos currently ranks No. 10 in the nation in singles. She had a standout season for the Women of Troy last spring and finished the year as an ITA All-American. – Brian Ji | Daily Trojan

A pair of women’s tennis players will head east to play in the 2015 ITA/USTA Indoor National Championship, in Flushing, New York, beginning Thursday.

Senior Giuliana Olmos, who ranks No. 10 in the nation in singles, and sophomore Gabby Smith will represent the Trojans at the ITA  National Indoor National Championship, which will be hosted by Columbia University and will take place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The yearly contest features men and women’s 32 singles draws and 20 team doubles draws. Among those draws will be some of the nation’s best collegiate tennis players.

Olmos will be playing in the women’s Singles main event as a wildcard. She will team up with Smith for the women’s doubles main event, where they will enter as an at-large selection.

In last year’s ITA/USTA Indoor National Championship, Olmos faltered in the first round to Caroline Price of North Carolina in two sets (7-5, 6-1), in the women’s singles main draw. Following this, she competed in the women’s singles consolation draw, where she lost a second round battle to Cal’s Zsofi Susanyi in three sets (6-4, 3-6, 6-2).

In the women’s doubles main event, Olmos and Smith suffered a second round defeat to Texas A&M’s Ines Deheza and Rachel Pierson (6-4, 6-4).

They pair did not fare any better in the Women’s Doubles 2nd round Consolation, where they fell to Michigan’s Emina Bektas and Alexandra Najarian in three hard fought sets (5-7, 7-6(2), 10-8).

Despite their struggles in last season’s ITA/USTA Indoor National Championship, this doubles pairing has a successful past. Last season, Smith and Olmos finished with a 9-2 record after bringing home titles from the ITA Southwest Regional Championship and the Jack Kramer Classic.

Most recently, the duo won the 2015 Oracle/ITA  Masters Doubles competition, triumphing over Kentucky’s then top-10 rated team in two decisive sets (6-2, 6-2).

Smith and Olmos will hope to recapture the women’s doubles title at Flushing Meadows that has escaped USC since 2012, when Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria triumphed for the second time.