Lauren Embree fell short of advancing to the main draw in the Red Rock Pro Open 50k on Tuesday, dropping her third and final qualifying match to Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0.
After sweeping her first two opponents in Las Vegas and dropping just 10 games throughout her first two rounds of qualifying play, Embree struggled against Bondarenko on Tuesday.
After taking a 4-3 lead in the first set, Embree’s play fell from there, dropping the next three games to give Bondarenko the first set 6-3.
Bondarenko then blanked Embree in the second set to complete the sweep and become one of four players to advance from the qualifying draw to the main draw of the tournament.
Embree — a four-time singles All-American and three-time Southeastern Conference Player of the Year during her tenure at Florida — logged only 16 of 46 points on her eight service games.
Embree failed to take advantage of Bondarenko’s eight double-faults, which constituted a fifth of Embree’s total points throughout the match.
Bondarenko’s win against Embree marked her second victory against a UF player in as many days as she defeated Florida junior Brianna Morgan 6-0, 6-2 on Monday.
Lauren Embree reaches for a backhand against Georgia at the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional Singles final on Oct. 24, 2011. Embree lost her final dual match as a Gator in Florida’s 4-3 loss to Stanford in the NCAA semifinals on Monday.
