Sept. 23, 2010
Event Information | Draws
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Three members of the Baylor women's tennis team will open the season at the Roberta Alison Fall Classic, hosted by the University of Alabama on Sept. 24-26 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Senior Karolina Filipiak and newcomers Cristina Danaila and Aya Bara will compete in the 64-player singles draw over the weekend. The meet marks the first event of the season for the women's tennis team.
Filipiak enters her final season at Baylor after posting a career year in 2009. Last season, she compiled a 26-8 overall record, including a 20-5 mark in dual-match play at the No. 5 and No. 6 positions for BU. Filipiak was 6-3 in individual tournament play last fall.
Danaila, a native of Braila, Romania, will be competing in her first competition at Baylor. Achieving a career-high WTA singles rank of 891 and a career-high doubles rank of 660, she was one of the top singles and doubles players in her country in U16 and U18. Danaila won Romanian Doubles Championships three times in 2009, while also winning the U18 doubles championship in 2009 and the U16 championship in 2007. Danaila had career-best national rankings of No. 2 in U16 singles, No. 3 in U18 singles and No. 15 in seniors, while also earning a ranking of No. 3 in U18 doubles in 2008.
Bara, a native of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, will also compete in her first career event at Baylor. The freshman earned a U18 Junior Ontario ranking as high as 12th, while being ranked 22nd among all U18 juniors in Canada. She also earned a No. 19 Women's Open ranking in Canada. Bara was a multiple-time winner in three-star events in Ontario, while also enjoying success at the four- and five-star levels.
Friday will feature two rounds of doubles and one round of singles. The doubles draws will wrap up on Saturday, with one more round of singles being played that day as well. The final round of singles will be played on Sunday. The tournament's namesake, Roberta Alison, holds one of the most inspiring stories in tennis history. In 1963, the Southeastern Conference made an historic decision to allow women to compete on men's varsity teams. Alabama's head coach at the time, Jason Morton, convinced Alison to join the Crimson Tide men's tennis team, making her the first woman to compete on a varsity men's team at Alabama.
