Forbes Wins NCAA Individuals Debut in Straight Sets

ORLANDO, Fla. – Abbey Forbes of UCLA was triumphant in her NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships Individuals debut Sunday, defeating Chloe Beck of Duke by a 6-3, 7-6(5) score in first-round singles action at USTA National Campus.

Bruin Jada Hart, meanwhile, had her singles career come to a close with a 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-5 loss at the hands of the Blue Devils' Kelly Chen.

No. 7 Forbes, who knocked off No. 5 Kenya Jones of Georgia Tech and No. 77 Ashley Lahey of Pepperdine during the team competition earlier in the week, dug out of a 0-2 hole in her first set with Beck. After Forbes got the match back on serve in the subsequent game, it stayed that way until 3-3. From there, she took the final three games – including two breaks – for the first-set win.

The second set saw Forbes grab the first two games, the second of which set off a string of four consecutive breaks. Forbes and Beck traded breaks twice more, sending the contest into a tiebreaker. There, Forbes held on for a 7-5 victory and a trip to the second round, where she will face Irina Cantos Siemers of Ohio State Monday at 9:30 a.m., PT.

Hart put her first set with Chen back on serve at 1-2 and added two more breaks for a 6-2 win. The second saw three more back-to-back breaks, including one by Hart to force a tiebreaker. Chen seized seven of eight points to send the match to a third set, however.

Hart jumped out to a 4-0 advantage in the decider, only to have Chen respond by taking the next five games to bring it back on serve. Then, serving 5-6, Hart was broken and took the loss. The graduate student finishes her UCLA career in a tie for 10th place (Tracy Lin) on the program's career singles wins list (since 1991) with a record of 94-41.

Hart will have a chance to extend her doubles career as a Bruin Monday, when she teams with Elysia Bolton to take on Estela Perez-Somarriba and Isabella Pfennig of Miami at 2 p.m.