Buckner, Fahey set finals clash with three-game victories
Brooke Buckner and Kate Fahey booked their respective spots in the women’s singles final with tough victories late Thursday evening at Darling Tennis Center.
Buckner emerged victorious against No. 2 seed Catherine Parenteau, coming away with an 11-4, 10-12, 11-6 triumph.
The No. 4 seed came out firing and comfortably took Game 1 behind crisp drives that allowed her to work her way up to the kitchen line and finish points from there.
Parenteau changed her gameplan in the second game, however, and began employing shorter, more angled shots to get Buckner on the run. This gave her opportunities to use Buckner’s pace against her and keep changing the direction of the ball throughout the point, similar to what Anna Leigh Waters did when she faced Buckner in last week’s final in Virginia Beach.
That helped Parenteau narrowly pull out Game 2, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Buckner jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the decider and was eventually able to close out the match, thanks to a few too many missed returns from Parenteau.
“Catherine has every shot in the book, and she’s used that same strategy on me before,” the former University of Michigan tennis star explained. “I was expecting it a little bit, but that doesn’t mean I handled it particularly well. I knew it was gonna be a battle, and thankfully I was able to pull it out.”
Buckner will have a chance to earn her third medal of the year on Sunday.
To do that, she’ll have to beat the victor from the second semifinal, Kate Fahey.
Fahey defeated No. 16 seed Genie Bouchard—who had a breakthrough run in Las Vegas—11-2, 14-16, 11-0.
It looked like the No. 9 seed would cruise to an easy win after dominating the first game, but Bouchard would not go down easily; she used a combination of incredible defense and precise volleys to save six match points in a wild Game 2 that she eventually closed out at the fifth time of asking.
Not deterred by having to play the decider, Fahey found another gear in the third game and ended the day with an 11-0 pickle in a game that, fittingly, lasted just eleven minutes.
“I think I kind of stopped hitting the ball a little bit in the second game, and [Genie] was able to take some short balls and come in off of that, so I just wanted to let it rip in the third game,” Fahey said of her mentality going into Game 3.
That decision helped her make her fourth singles final of the year.
Sunday will mark the second time that Buckner and Fahey—both former tennis standouts at the University of Michigan—face off in a final this year. Buckner took home the gold when they played in Kansas City back in August.
That one went three games, so we’ll hope for another tightly contested bout in Sin City.
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