After a successful opening journey in the ITF 15k, the FAU women’s tennis team stopped in rounds of 16 in an epic close battle on Court 7 5-7, 7-6⁴, 7-5 in singles and quarterfinal doubles 6-4, 6-3, in Hilton Head, SC.

“I am happy with my performance. I played two good matches. It was my first tournament as a college tennis player,” said Panna Bartha after her defeat in singles to Maria Florentia Urratia.

The announcement of what would be a long day for the Hungarian freshman Panna Bartha was a back-and-forth battle with the Argentinian Maria Florentia Urratia that took 56 minutes in the first set to complete.

Bartha saved the break-point in the 48-minute at 5-5 to go up 6-5 and broke Urrutia to take the first set at 7-5.

Starting the second set, Urrautia got the first break-point for the lead, but Bartha answered right back to tie at 1-1 and served for an early 2-1 lead. Urrutia stormed back to 3-2, but Bartha refused to give her complete confidence and went up 40-love to get the break-point to tie it back at 3-3.

At this point, both players were trading blows and unable to hold their serves as Urrutia got another break-point to lead at 4-3, and Bartha answered once again to tie it at 4-4.

The 19-year-old Hungarian gave herself a little bit of breathing room by holding her serve to lead at 5-4 but could not close the match as Urrutia tied the set at 5-5.

Bartha served a 40-love to go up 6-5, but Urrutia would not let up and level at 6-6 and won the set tiebreaker 7-6.

Urrutia carried the momentum in the third set and went up 2-0. However, Bartha, who could not afford to go down 3-0, fought to put one on the board after three break-point attempts and tied the set at two a-piece.

With both players going back and forth, Bartha missed the opportunity on a break-point to give Urrutia the lead at 4-3 but served another 40-love and tied the set at 4-4.

With both players unable to separate their games, Bartha stole another break-point to lead 5-4. She went up 40-love on the next serve, but Urrutia was not ready to give up and saved four match points to force Bartha to distance as she leveled the set at 5-5.

Coming down the wire in the third, Urrutia went up 6-5, and after over three hours, the Argentinian closed the match at 7-5 as Bartha failed to mount a comeback to force a tiebreaker.

“Even though I lost today, I think I showed a good level of tennis. I had a lot of chances that I couldn’t take. I will keep working to take them next time.” said Panna Bartha. “My takeaways from my matches are that I can continue to improve on my mental strength and also work on my serve.”

FAU women’s tennis head coach Ricardo Gonzalez gave his take on Bartha’s performance.

“This was an awesome match from both players that could have gone either way. While the final result is not what we wanted, Panna is taking steps in the right direction, and she will bounce back stronger. More opportunities ahead of her,” said coach Ricardo Gonzalez.

On the doubles side, the pair of Panna Bartha and Rhea Verma, after putting up more than three hours of tennis each in singles earlier, had an extended rest time to start their game. The duo were unable to replicate where they left off in a victory. They lost in the quarterfinal against the duo Mia Yamakita and Chieh-Yu Hsu 6-4, 6-3.

FAU women’s tennis team plans  on traveling to Tampa, Fl. for the next Bedford Cup tournament, from September 29 to October 1.

Gasner Delvarin Jr. is a staff writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].