July 30, 2018
San Jose, Calif.----- With less than 24 hours to prepare for a match against two of the top-50 women's tennis doubles players in the world, San Jose State University's Sybille Gauvain and Tamara Culibrk held their own in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu and Great Britain's Heather Watson in a first-round Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic match.
Buzarnescu is ranked #24 and Watson, #48, in the Women's Tennis Association's July 23 doubles rankings. They are the #2-seeded doubles team in the tournament.
Gauvain and Culibrk teamed up for just the third time and first since September 2017 when they were paired for two matches in the SDSU (San Diego State) Fall Classic. In their two matches at San Diego State, Gauvain and Culibrk managed to win five games in two sets, one less than the six they won earlier in the day against established professionals.
Gauvain was playing her second match in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic. She lost a 6-0, 6-3 match to Russia's Anna Blinkova, ranked #101 in the world, in a July 28 singles qualifying round contest.
The Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic continues through Sunday, August 5.
San Jose State's women's tennis season begins, September 21 at the three-day UNLV Fall Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev.