Top Performances Countdown: Nayar's Run To The Regional Finals
April 12, 2020 | Tennis
Sara Nayar opened the 2019 fall tennis season facing four nationally-ranked opponents in her first five matches. Things didn't get much easier in the grueling ITA Mountain Region Championships where she would need to play five singles matches in five days, in addition to four doubles matches, just to get to the finals. She was up to the challenge.
Nayar battled through five straight victories to reach the singles championship, where she finished second to Chiara Tomasetti from Northern Arizona, the 71st-ranked player in the nation.
The sophomore from Malaysia fought through a three-set first-round win over Nadeen Lieberman from Air Force, another three-set win in the second round, a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Lindsay Hung from Utah in the round of 16, and another straight-set win in the quarterfinals over Stella Cliffe from CSU.
Nayar battled back to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Alisia Manolescu from New Mexico in the semifinals before bowing out to Tomasetti in the final.
"This was a good tournament for Sara in terms of maturity and mental growth," head coach Danielle Steinberg said after the championship match. "In the span of a week's tournament, there will be a lot of ups and downs. We will almost never play our best tennis every day, and we need to learn how to figure out ways to battle and win matches regardless of how well we play, and I think Sara did that very well this week. We came up short today but that doesn't take away the progress we made over the week."
Nayar finished the season 8-11 overall in singles play, but battled injuries in the spring before the season was cut short due to the pandemic. Seven of her 11 losses were to nationally-ranked opponents.
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Nayar battled through five straight victories to reach the singles championship, where she finished second to Chiara Tomasetti from Northern Arizona, the 71st-ranked player in the nation.
The sophomore from Malaysia fought through a three-set first-round win over Nadeen Lieberman from Air Force, another three-set win in the second round, a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Lindsay Hung from Utah in the round of 16, and another straight-set win in the quarterfinals over Stella Cliffe from CSU.
Nayar battled back to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Alisia Manolescu from New Mexico in the semifinals before bowing out to Tomasetti in the final.
"This was a good tournament for Sara in terms of maturity and mental growth," head coach Danielle Steinberg said after the championship match. "In the span of a week's tournament, there will be a lot of ups and downs. We will almost never play our best tennis every day, and we need to learn how to figure out ways to battle and win matches regardless of how well we play, and I think Sara did that very well this week. We came up short today but that doesn't take away the progress we made over the week."
Nayar finished the season 8-11 overall in singles play, but battled injuries in the spring before the season was cut short due to the pandemic. Seven of her 11 losses were to nationally-ranked opponents.
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