No. 1 Women’s Tennis preview: Miami Invitational

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The No. 1 University of Texas Women’s Tennis team will open its spring 2022 season with three days of competition at the Miami Invitational on Saturday-Monday, Jan. 15-17 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. The Longhorns will compete in singles and doubles in an individual round-robin format against No. 8 NC State, Vanderbilt and host No. 24 Miami.

This will not be a dual-match competition. All results will be individual and not team-based.

Texas will begin play in the Miami Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 15 with doubles competition against Miami. Doubles play will not begin before 10:30 a.m. Central (11:30 a.m. Eastern). UT will then compete in singles against NC State beginning at 1 p.m. Central (2 p.m. Eastern).

The Longhorns will continue play on Sunday, Jan. 16 with doubles against NC State. Doubles action will not begin before 10:30 a.m. Central (11:30 a.m. Eastern). Texas will then compete in singles against Vanderbilt beginning at 1 p.m. Central (2 p.m. Eastern).

Texas concludes play at the Miami Invitational on Monday, Jan. 17 with doubles against Vanderbilt. Doubles play is set to start at 7 a.m. Central (8 a.m. Eastern). UT will then compete in singles against Miami beginning at 8 a.m. Central (9 a.m. Eastern).

UT returns six players from last year’s NCAA Championship team, including sophomores Peyton Stearns, Charlotte Chavatipon, Kylie Collins, Malaika Rapolu and Simran Kortikere along with junior Gabby Cusano. Stearns earned ITA All-America honors in singles and was tabbed the 2021 Big 12 Freshman of the Year. Collins claimed ITA All-America honors in doubles (with Lulu Sun) and earned Most Outstanding Performer accolades at the 2021 Big 12 Championship. Chavatipon was an All-Big 12 second-team selection in both singles and doubles last year, while Rapolu was named the league’s individual champion at No. 6 singles in 2021 with a 6-0 mark in that spot in Big 12 play.

The Longhorns also welcome a solid group of five freshmen to the roster, including Vivian Ovrootsky (San Jose, Calif.), Grace Thomas (Brisbane, Australia), Allura Zamarripa (St. Helena, Calif.), Bella Zamarripa (St. Helena, Calif.) and Sabina Zeynalova (Kyiv, Ukraine).

No live video stream will be available for the Miami Invitational, but live scoring will be provided at the following link: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=mifl.

Miami Invitational – Schedule of Play (Jan. 15-17) – All times Central

Saturday, Jan. 15

8 am: Miami vs. Vanderbilt (singles)

NB 10:30 am: Miami vs. Texas (doubles), NC State vs. Vanderbilt (doubles)

1 pm: Texas vs NC State (singles)

Sunday, Jan. 16

8 am: Miami vs. NC State (singles)

NB 10:30 am: Miami vs. Vanderbilt (doubles), Texas vs NC State (doubles)

1 pm: Texas vs. Vanderbilt (singles)

Monday, Jan. 17

7 am: Miami vs NC State (doubles), Texas vs. Vanderbilt (doubles)

8 am: Miami vs. Texas (singles), NC State vs. Vanderbilt (singles)