Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Brandi wins singles title at Peachtree City pro tourney

Tennis fans who came out this week to see Kristina Brandi, the top seed at the Goody Products USTA Women's Pro Championships at the Peachtree City Tennis Center, learned early in the week that they better not be late or they might miss something -- like the entire match.

Brandi won the singles title at Peachtree City, a $25,000 event, for the second time, capping off the week with a 6-0, 6-1 win in about 45 minutes over Allison Bradshaw in the final. The champion collected $3,000 and the runnerup received $1,700.

A winner here back in 1998, Brandi climbed as high as 26th in the women's rankings before a torn tendon in her wrist led to a layoff of about a year and a half. She started back last year and entered this tournament ranked 112th.

This was her fifth tournament win of 2003. After a three-set victory Tuesday in the first round, she lost only seven games the rest of the way and none of her matches lasted more than an hour and 10 minutes. She led 5-0 in the second set of Sunday's match before Bradshaw broke through and won a game.

Bradshaw started her week at Peachtree City in the qualifying rounds before working her way up to her first final of the year.

One of Brandi's tournament titles this year came in Europe at a grass-court tuneup to Wimbledon. She went on to reach the second qualifying round at Wimbledon and the final qualifying round at the U.S. Open.

With her ranking almost certain to climb into the top 100 with this win, she is looking to play in a few larger tournaments in the near future, including a $170,000 event in Quebec. Her win in Peachtree City automatically gives her a spot in qualifying for February's WTA tournament in Memphis.

Born in Puerto Rico, she has lived in Florida almost her entire life but has been able to compete for Puerto Rico in the Federation Cup and the Pan American Games, and she will be on the Puerto Rican Olympic team next summer in Athens, Greece.

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