Florida’s Kiick, Stewart Win ITF/USTA Pro Circuit Tennis Titles

Orlando’s Allie Kiick and Coral Gables’ Katerina Stewart were Florida winners of ITF/USTA Pro Circuit over the weekend, with Stewart claiming the largest title of her career.

Stewart beat fellow American Shelby Rogers 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the $80,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Macon, Ga. The 22-year-old was an unseeded wild card entrant and won after overcoming a rocky start to the week.

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In the first round she defeated American Hanna Chang after losing the first set 6-0, and in the second round she needed three sets to defeat No. 7 seed Caroline Dolehide from the U.S.

The all-American semifinals saw Stewart defeat Danielle Lao 6-3, 6-0, and Rogers beat Grace Min 6-4, 6-2.

Stewart’s win puts her in the early lead in the Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, which offers a wild card to the points winner in a series of ITF/USTA Pro Circuit events. Stewart at this time though says she has no plans to play any further events in the challenge.

Serving it out in style 💪

Katerina Stewart picks up the biggest singles title of her career, defeating Shelby Rogers 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2 at the #USTAProCircuit event in Macon, GA.#TeamUSATennis | @USTAMacon80K pic.twitter.com/mkPm1hwgRn

— USTA (@usta) October 27, 2019

Stewart is a former USTA Girls’ 16s national champion and served a brief military stint in the United States Army at West Point before an NCAA rules miscommunication prevented her from playing college tennis for Army.

She also suffered a herniated disk following a car accident that kept her out of action from last September until this May. Stewart in now 11-3 in career ITF/USTA Pro Circuit finals and has won her last six in a row dating to 2015. Rogers is now 5-4 in ITF finals, and 1-1 in 2019 after in September defeating CoCo Vandeweghe in the final in Templeton, Calif.

Orlando’s Kiick was also a title winner last Sunday, raising the trophy at the  ITF World Tennis Tour Women’s $25,000 in Cucuta, Colombia.

The top-seeded Kiick in the final defeated No. 2 Conny Perrin of Switzerland 6-2, 6-2.

Failing to drop a set throughout the week, Kiick in the semifinals defeated No. 7 seed Cindy Burger of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-0. Perrin in her semifinal beat unseeded Colombian Emiliana Arango 6-3, 7-6(5).

Kiick improved to 7-4 in career ITF/USTA Pro Circuit finals, and 2-0 in 2019 after winning a $60,000 title in Barcelona, Spain in June. The 28-year-old Perrin fell to 12-13 in career ITF finals.

The Orlando resident is coached by 46-year-old former player Lisa Raymond who announced she will make a doubles comeback in 2020 and has already competed in tournaments this year with Kiick.

For more info on ITF and USTA Pro Circuit events go to www.usta.com.