Kononova, Kutubidze Reach Regional Finals

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — North Texas tennis seniors Tamuna Kutubidze and Maria Kononova became the first Mean Green doubles team in program-history to reach the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Texas Regional finals with a 5-7, 7-6(4), 10-4 victory on Saturday afternoon.

The Mean Green duo who had been eliminated in the semifinal round each of the last two seasons will face the tournament's seventh-seed from Rice on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. You can watch the Kutubidze and Kononova's match here.

"We finally got our breakthrough," Kononova said. "Since the beginning we wanted to make that next step, but the matches didn't really went our way. We were down in both sets today but I'm happy we could find a solution and just enjoy the time at the court."

Saturday's win over Rice's Linda Huang and Michaela Haet was a back-and-forth affair that at first appeared to be horrible for the Mean Green. Kutubidze and Kononova were down 5-1 in the first set but rallied all the way back by winning four-straight games to tie the set score at 5-5. Kutubidze and Kononova would eventually lose the first set but the pressure had been put back on their Conference USA rival.

In the second-set, UNT trailed again early, this time hanging on to dear life as they were nearly facing match-point. The Owls led Kutubidze/Kononova 5-2 with a game score of 30-0 before the most successful North Texas doubles team once again made their comeback. Kutubidze and Kononova fought all the way back to send the set into a tiebreak, which they'd win 10-4 to send the match into a third and final set.

At the Texas Regional, third sets have been decided by a tiebreak and with momentum clearly on their side, the Mean Green seniors took a lead and never looked back as they'd win the third-set tiebreak 10-4.

"After one point the momentum had changed and we knew that we can use this opportunity," Kononova said.

On Saturday, the Texas Regional had already been one of the most successful ones in program-history with multiple records being set and personal bests being broken as well

Along with Kutubidze and Kononova's record-setting day on Saturday, Kononova had set the program-record for career singles wins on Thursday with her round of 64 win.

Then on Friday, North Texas' doubles team of Alexandra Heczey and Ivana Babic defeated the tournament's top-seeded team and the No. 21 nationally ranked team from Texas, 6-3, in the morning to advance to the quarterfinals.

They are the first unseeded Mean Green doubles team in program-history to beat a top-seeded doubles team in the Texas Regional and it is by far the highest ranked doubles team the UNT juniors have ever beaten.

Shortly after their win, in the singles draw, Minying Liang defeated the Longhorns' Petra Granic in a grueling, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0(7) round of 32 match. Granic was the tournament's second-seeded singles player and is the No. 40 nationally ranked player — the highest ranked opponent she has ever beaten.

Kutubidze and Kononova weren't the only wins for the Mean Green on Saturday.
Sophomore Nidhi Surapaneni reached the semifinals of the consolation singles bracket with a pair of straight-set victories.

Surapaneni defeated Abilene Christian's Jordan Henry, 6-3, 6-1 in the round of 16 and then a dominating 6-1, 6-1 win in the quarterfinals over Prairie View A&M's Constanza Aranguiz. Surapaneni will face Rice's Priya Niezgoda on Sunday at 8:30 a.m.

"I had very good focus through both my matches," Surapaneni said. "I just wanted to win, so I was ready to give my best on court and I did it."

RESULTS
DOUBLES
Semifinals: [6]Kutubidze/Kononova(UNT) def.[7] Huang/Haet(Rice); 5-7, 7-6(4), 10-4

SINGLES
Quarterfinals: Sella (TTU) def. Kutubidze(UNT); 6-4, 6-1

CONSOLATION SINGLES
Surapaneni(UNT) def. Henry (ACU); 6-4, 6-3
Surapaneni(UNT) def. Aranguiz (Prairie View); 6-1, 6-1
Memishishi(ACU) def. Sasaki(UNT); 7-5, 6-7(4), 10-6

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Players Mentioned

Ivana Babic

Alexandra Heczey

Maria Kononova

Tamuna Kutubidze

Minying Liang

Nidhi Surapaneni

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