Familiar face. Unfamiliar result.
Freshman Ansley Cargill, already a winner of three tournaments, came within four games of becoming the second Duke tennis player to win the Rolex Indoor Tournament and the first to win two straight legs of the collegiate Grand Slam. She fell to longtime junior circuit rival and current Stanford top-seed Laura Granville 6-3, 6-7(7-4), 6-3 in the finals in Dallas yesterday.
It was just her second loss this season. "I knew it was going to be a tough match," she said. "Laura and I always have tough matches. We grew up playing each other it seems. She's someone I love to play to gauge my game by. In the end today, she just came out a little bit stronger."
Granville, who claimed the Indoor title for a second straight year, extended her personal win streak to 55 matches and became the fourth straight Stanford player to win the yearly Dallas tournament.
She moved to 19-0 this season.
"These are the type of matches I really look forward to," said Granville, who also won last May's NCAA Tournament. "I love putting myself
And on Sunday, the match brought out the best in the old rivals.
"We help each other get better," said Cargill, who claimed the second leg of the Grand Slam at the Riviera All-America. "It shows we still have to room to grow especially if we're going to play on the pro tour. It's another stepping stone."
After dropping the opening set 6-3-neither player had lost so much as a set coming into the finals-Cargill found herself on the edge of a straight set defeat in the second. But down 5-4, Cargill fended off four match points to pull even at 5-5 and eventually force a second set tiebreak.
A rallied Cargill then stormed through the tiebreaker, winning 7-3.
"I felt pretty pumped up after saving four match points, but I knew that [Granville] would never let down her guard and that she would come back to attack," Cargill said. "And that's what she did. I was relieved but, I also knew I was going to have to save myself because it was going to be a tough third set."
Slowed by the flu but still on top of her game, Granville made it tougher than even Cargill could've expected. The dominant sophomore broke the Blue Devil's serve in the third game of the decisive set and held on for the three set win, breaking Cargill's serve again in the final game of the match to reclaim the Rolex title.
"We were neck and neck there for a little while with our serves and I started backing off the baseline a little bit in the third set which gave her room to attack, but not too much room," Cargill said. "She didn't miss a ball when she was attacking and I needed to take that away from her. I just need to work on that a little bit more."
It's hard to imagine there could be much else the Atlanta freshman could work on.
Cargill, who fell to 17-2 on the season with the loss, became just the second Duke player to reach the finals of the ITA's most prestigious tournament. Karin Miller, who left Duke for the WTA tour after her freshman year, won the tournament as the eight seed in 1997.
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