THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408050740
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Seventeen-year-old Lindsay Lee, playing in just her fourth tournament since turning pro two months ago, stunned top-seeded Julie Shiflet, 6-1, 6-3, Thursday in the second round of the $10,000 USTA Women's Circuit of Norfolk tennis tournament at Old Dominion University.
Shiflet, a Virginia Beach resident, was one of three seeds to fall in the round of 16.
Seventh-seeded Varalee Sureephong of Haines City, Fla., and No. 6 Aurora Gima of Ridgewood, N.Y. were also eliminated.
Meanwhile, second-seeded Claudine Toleafoa of New Zealand sailed smoothly into the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over NCAA champion Angela Lettiere of Vero Beach, Fla. Toleafoa, who was among the world's top 50 players before being sidelined by injury, has lost just four games in her two matches.
Quarterfinal matches will begin today at 10 a.m. at ODU.
According to tournament director Darryl Cummings, losses by top seeds in this kind of tournament, where the difference between players hundreds of spots apart on the rankings often means the lower-ranked player hasn't played many tournaments, are hardly uncommon.
But while it wasn't necessarily shocking that an unseeded player beat Shiflet, it had to raise a few eyebrows locally when Lee handed out the beating. In her last trip to South Hampton Roads, a little more than a year ago, Lee was a second-round loser in the USTA Girls 16s Clay Court Championships.
Thursday, however, Lee was clearly a different player. And despite the vast difference in rankings - Lee is ranked 550th in the world, Shiflet No. 325 - Lee said she knew almost from the start that it was going to be her day.
``I could tell after the first game,'' she said. ``I had the feeling I couldn't miss anything. That made my confidence go up, and I was able to relax and just go for it.''
Today, Lee will take on Lucie Ludvigova of the Czech Republic and the University of Texas. Ludvigova, a lucky loser out of the qualifying tournament, ousted qualifier Jennifer Callen, 7-5, 6-1 in the second round Thursday.
In other quarterfinal matches, third-seeded Karin Miller of Bradenton, Fla., takes on No. 5 Gail Biggs of Australia; Tjasa Jezernik of Slovenia meets fourth-seeded Petra Gaspar of Hungary; and Toleafoa plays Kim Grant of South Africa. by CNB