Bardina Holds Off Barte’s Comeback Bid

In a thrilling first-round qualifying match on the Grandstand, 17-year-old wild card entrant Hilary Barte fell to Russia’s Vasilisa Bardina, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in one-hour and 57 minutes.

After splitting the first two sets, Barte fell behind 5-0 in the third set. The Grandstand crowd which numbered over 1,000 got behind the American as she broke Bardina, who is ranked 98 in the world, to stay in the match.

With the crowd cheering loudly after every point, Barte held serve, then broke Bardina again to make the score 5-3. Barte then held serve when Bardina hit a forehand long to close to 5-4.

Bardina, who qualified for the Wimbledon main draw this year, went on to serve out the match when she cracked a forehand crosscourt winner on her first match point.  The large crowd gave both players a standing ovation at the conclusion of the match.

“It was really fun and the crowd was great,” Barte said. “I could really feel it. She’s really good. I’m just a step short. I learned you can’t really give away free points because she didn’t give me any.”

• Bardina advances to the second round of qualifying where she will meet fellow Russian Lioudmila Skavronskaia.
• Bardina converted 6 of 17 break point opportunities.
• Barte was awarded a wild card into the qualifying draw for winning the Acura Classic Opportunity Tournament in San Clemente.
• Barte won the 2005 CIF Southern Section individual singles title. In her semifinal match of that tournament, she was losing 6-3, 5-0 but came back to win and advance to the finals.
• Barte is ranked 1065 in the world.
• Barte was named Girls’ Tennis Player of the Year by The Los Angeles Times and The Los Angeles Daily News.

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