Marrit Boonstra fell one win short of qualifying for the main draw at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, losing to Laura Gioia of Furman 6-1, 6-1. There will be no Gators in the singles main draw of the tournament, which is the first event in the ITA Intercollegiate Grand Slam.
Boonstra, ranked 67th, was coming off an exhausting day where she played two matches over the course of six and a half hours. Fatigue clearly affected her against Gioia, ranked 72nd.
"Marrit had a tough time finding her legs after such a long, grueling day on Tuesday, and she just didn't have her best stuff today," UF associate coach Dave Balogh said. "Gioia played really well, and the credit goes to her."
The week does not end for Boonstra, though, as she will team up with Megan Alexander in the first round of doubles competition Thursday. Boonstra and Alexander, ranked sixth, were 15-4 last season and automatically qualified for the main draw. Their opponents had not been announced at press time, but it will be a team from the qualifying draw.
In the consolation bracket, Anastasia Revzina lost 6-4, 6-3, to Bojana Bobusic of California, ranked 65th.
"Anastasia had her chances but just couldn't find a way to put points together," Balogh said. "That's one thing all of our players learned from this tournament. It's uncharacteristic of us and we tend to be much better later in the season, but against the caliber of players who are in this tournament, you can't give up consecutive points often and that's what happened. We will be better. I have no doubt about it. One area that never faltered, though, was our competitiveness. I was extremely proud of the way we continued to fight."
