Colorado University Athletics
Steur Gets To Championship Match At Shymkent Open
October 11, 2015 | Tennis
SHYMKENT, KAZAKHSTAN – Former University of Colorado women's tennis player Julyette Steur advanced all the way to the championship match in her first professional main draw appearance at the Shymkent Open, an outdoor clay court tournament with a $10,000 purse here in Kazakhstan.
After successfully going through the qualifying tournament, she defeated the tournament's top-seeded player, Russian Maragriaz Lazareva, who is ranked No. 358 in the world, 6-4, 6-2.
After defeating Lazareva, Steur defeated another Russian, Ksenija Sharifova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the second round, advancing to the quarterfinals, where she defeated Gozal Ainitdinova from Kazahkstan, 7-5, 7-5.
In the semifinals, she took down Georgia's Ekaterine Gorgodze, the tournament's No. 3 seed and No. 438 ranked player in the world, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the finals, where she fell to Georgia's Sofia Kvatsabaia, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. Kvatsbaia is ranked the No. 391 player in the world.
With her runner-up finish, she will earn seven points toward being ranked in the world rankings. Players must earn 10 points or participate in three main draw events, so if she earns a main draw and three more points, she will be ranked, or if she makes two more main draws regardless of points.
Steur is currently the No. 155-ranked player in Germany and was born in Rothenburg, Germany, although she called Apeldoorn, Nederlands, her hometown while playing at CU.
She graduated from CU at just 19 years of age with a degree in Business last May. She played in another pro tournament in June at the Driekleur Challenger Zeeland in Zeeland, Netherlands. There, she retired in the second set in the first round of qualifying to Melanie Vlak (6-4, 2-0 ret).
Steur racked up 111 victories in her career at CU, climbing into the top 20 in that category. She finished with 61 singles and 50 doubles victories and was an impressive 25-10 at No. 1 singles in her career, also racking up more Pac-12 singles wins than any other player in CU history. She was also a three time ITA Scholar-Athlete.
