TAMPA – The FIU women's tennis team had a total of eight individuals and four doubles tandems compete at the 2021 Bedford Cup, hosted by the University of South Florida this weekend in Tampa.
 
"I am very pleased with the team's performance and accomplishments this weekend," FIU women's tennis head coach Katarina Petrovic said.  "Overall, I was happy with the results, particularly our performance in doubles play.  The freshman duo (Yasmine Kabbaj & Ines Bekrar) played together for the first time and pushed the team from the University of Florida until the last point and we were able to capture the title in Flight B.  The most important thing about fall competition is the opportunity to see that we have to work on and improve as a team."
 
The doubles pairing of junior Kristina Miletic and sophomore Andreea Velcea highlighted the tournament for the Panthers as the duo posted three straight wins to clinch the Flight B Doubles Championship.  The run to the title included wins over doubles squads from USF (6-3) and back-to-back against Florida Gulf Coast. (6-2 & 8-5).
 
In doubles action in the Flight A Bracket, freshmen Kabbaj and Bekrar ran off three consecutive wins to reach the championship match.  The tandem pushed the University of Florida's duo of Bente Spee and Emma Shelton, before coming on the short end of an 8-6 outcome.
 
The Panthers had a pair of individuals advance to the quarterfinal round of the top singles flight as senior Kamila Umarova posted victories over FAU's Katerina Filip (6-4, 6-3) and UCF's Nadja Bay Christians (6-0, 6-3), before falling to eventual Flight A Champion and No. 1 seed Shelton from the University of Florida (6-1, 6-4).
 
Kabbaj defeated FGCU's Emma Bardet (6-1, 6-2) and FAU's Martina Kudelova (6-4, 7-6 (2)) in also reaching the quarterfinal round of the top singles bracket.
 
Other Panthers competing in Flight A singles included Velcea, who dropped a 6-2, 6-1 decision to Florida's Spee.  Sophomore Andjela Skrobonja was defeated in the opening round by a 6-3, 6-0 margin by UCF's Marie Mattel.
 
FIU also saw a total of four players compete in the Flight B singles bracket, with Miletic posting a pair of match victories before coming up just short in the semifinals, as she was edged out by USF's Sierra Berry (7-5, 7-6 (5)).
 
Bekrar and senior Basak Akbas each won a pair of matches to advance to the quarterfinals of the second singles flight.  Bekrar added another victory in additional singles action on Sunday with a tiebreaker triumph (2-6, 6-3) [10-7] over Florida A&M's Aylen Hubeaut.
 
Other action in doubles play had Akbas and Audelia Morin-Kougoucheff pushing through to the semifinal round of the bracket in Flight B, while Skrobonja and Umarova lost in the opening round of the Flight A doubles competition.
 
UP NEXT
The Panthers return to action when they travel to Orlando to compete at the ITA Regional on Oct. 14-17.  They will then return home to host the FIU Invitational featuring Purdue, USF and FAU on Oct. 29-31.