Huge Round of 16 Women's Match Today at NCAA's in Athens

Duke's Beatrice Capra

Florida Junior Lauren EmbreeIt's a match that could've made a good finals.  It features two players with quite a bit of professional tournament experience.  Both players are members of two of the top college teams in the land.

It will be one of the feature matches of the tournament today when Duke's Beatrice Capra takes on Florida's Lauren Embree this morning at 11 am in the round of 16 of the NCAA Women's Singles draw.

No. 2 ranked Capra survived a tough match against Lindsey Hardenbergh on Thursday to advance.

"It was a really tough match," Capra said. "She definitely made me work to win that match today. I think in the first set, I did a good job of stepping up and moving forward in the court. In the second set, she made me play a lot more balls and I was kind of on the defense. I knew what I needed to do to win that match in the third set and I just did it."

Embree has won 20 consecutive matches and just led her Florida Gator team to the team championship.  She has a 31-5 mark on the season, and I'm puzzled why she is only seeded in the 9-16 range.

This should be a close two-set match or a tough three setter.  Even though Capra is favored, I wouldn't be surprised to see Embree win.

Could this be the last collegiate match for one or both of these players.  Embree has said she is coming back for her senior campaign, but you never know.

Looking forward to this one.

Round of 16 Play at Western & Southern

ORDER OF PLAY - THURSDAY, AUGUST 18   

CENTER COURT start 11:00 AM
Fernando Verdasco (ESP) vs [2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) - ATP
[14] Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) vs [4] [WC] Maria Sharapova (RUS) - WTA
Not Before 2:30 PM   

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs [Q] Radek Stepanek (CZE) - ATP
Not Before 7:00 PM 
[3] Roger Federer (SUI) vs [WC] James Blake (USA) - ATP
[5] Liezel Huber (USA) / Lisa Raymond (USA) vs [3] Vania King (USA) / Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) - WTA

GRANDSTAND start 11:00 AM
[5] Na Li (CHN) vs [10] Samantha Stosur (AUS) - WTA
[7] Mardy Fish (USA) vs [12] Richard Gasquet (FRA) - ATP
Not Before 2:30 PM  
[5] David Ferrer (ESP) vs [10] Gilles Simon (FRA) - ATP
Not Before 7:00 PM  

[13] Jelena Jankovic (SRB) vs [7] Francesca Schiavone (ITA) - WTA
[1] Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA) vs Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) / Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) - ATP

COURT 3 start 11:00 AM   

[Q] Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA) vs [4] Andy Murray (GBR) - ATP
[9] Nicolas Almagro (ESP) vs [8] Tomas Berdych (CZE) - ATP
[WC] Christina McHale (USA) vs Nadia Petrova (RUS) - WTA
[3] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) / Leander Paes (IND) vs Marc Lopez (ESP) / Rafael Nadal (ESP) - ATP
Not Before 7:00 PM
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) vs [6] Gael Monfils (FRA) - ATP

COURT 9 start 11:00 AM
[8] Marion Bartoli (FRA) vs Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) - WTA
[Q] Petra Martic (CRO) vs [2] Vera Zvonareva (RUS) - WTA
Not Before 2:30 PM
[9] Andrea Petkovic (GER) vs [6] Petra Kvitova (CZE) - WTA
Not Before 4:00 PM  

Shahar Peer (ISR) vs [16] Shuai Peng (CHN) - WTA
[4] Maria Kirilenko (RUS) / Nadia Petrova (RUS) vs Natalie Grandin (RSA) / Vladimira Uhlirova (CZE) - WTA - after suitable rest

COURT 4 start 11:00 AM  

Eric Butorac (USA) / Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) vs [4] Michael Llodra (FRA) / Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) - ATP
[5] Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) / Juan Monaco (ARG) - ATP
[1] Kveta Peschke (CZE) / Katerina Srebotnik (SLO) vs Sara Errani (ITA) / Roberta Vinci (ITA) - WTA
Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) / Jie Zheng (CHN) vs [2] G Dulko (ARG) / F Pennetta (ITA) - WTA
Tomas Berdych (CZE) / Radek Stepanek (CZE) vs [6] Robert Lindstedt (SWE) / Horia Tecau (ROU) - ATP - after suitable rest

COURT 6 start 1:00 AM   

[8] Jurgen Melzer (AUT) / Philipp Petzschner (GER) vs Juan-Sebastian Cabal (COL) / Florian Mayer (GER) - ATP
[WC] Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA) / Steve Johnson (USA) vs [2] Max Mirnyi (BLR) / Daniel Nestor (CAN) - ATP - after suitable rest