Bloomfield Hills Player Stays Alive in Dow Corning Tennis at Midland
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Diana Ospina of Bloomfield Hills
The only Michigan woman in the Dow Corning Tennis Classic, the only professional tennis tournament in the state, has earned a spot in the second round of the qualifier.
Diana Ospina of Bloomfield Hills, and two-time Midland winner Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands Sunday advanced to the second qualifying round at the classic, a $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit women's event.
Matches begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 5, at the Midland Community Tennis Center. The main draw is slated to begin Tuesday, Feb. 6-11.
Ospina, 27, defeated fellow American Jamie Hampton, 2-6 7-5 6-3, in the first qualifying round. She will face Ekaterina Makarova of Russia at 10 a.m. Monday.
Schultz-McCarthy, the event's oldest player at the age of 36, defeated Mervana Jugic-Salkic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 6-1 7-5, in first round match. The veteran will meet Teodora Mircic of Serbia following Ospina's match. The players need two more wins to earn a spot in the main draw.
Ospina won her first USTA Pro Circuit title in almost two years in 2006, when she defeated Anne Keothavong of Great Britain, 6-3 3-6 6-1, in the final of the $25,000 Advanced Laser Clinics/USTA Challenger at Redding, Calif.
Ospina has five professional titles, which includes the ITF-Monzon in Spain last May and the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit at Allentown, Pa. in June of 2004.
Schultz-McCarthy, ranked No. 296, is a two-time champion at the Dow Corning Classic, having won the singles title in 1994 and a doubles crown in 1995. She was ranked as high as No. 9 on the WTA Tour (1996) and has seven WTA Tour singles titles and nine doubles titles.
Local collegiate player, Ashley Neumann, who made her USTA Pro Circuit debut as a wildcard entry, lost in two sets, 2-6 4-6, to No. 369 ranked Anna Bartenstein of Austria. Neumann is a freshman tennis player at Northwood University player from Ontario, Canada.
The Dow Corning Tennis Classic is the first of seven $75,000 women's events on the USTA Pro Circuit. The Midland tourney was first held in 1989 and is in its 19th year, making it the longest running women's event on the USTA Pro Circuit. The initial tournament in 1989 was a $25,000 event. The total purse rose to $50,000 in 1996, and the tourney has been a $75,000 event since 1999.###
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