Gauvain, Culibrk fall in straight sets in Mubadala doubles match

By Marissa Scott

San Jose State tennis dropped its doubles match 2-0 in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic Monday afternoon.

SJSU’s own Sybille Gauvain and Tamara Culibrk lost both sets 6-3 against Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania and Heather Watson of Great Britain, each of whom are ranked in the top 50 for doubles according to the International Tennis Federation.

“I think we played a pretty good match,” said Sybille Gauvain. “The second set turned out their way, but every game was tight and we made some good shots from the baseline.”

The first set started off hopeful for the Spartan pair as they took a 2-1 lead. Buzarnescu and Watson went on a 5-1 run and took the first set.

There were competitive runs throughout the first set, but the Romanian and British pair ultimately came out on top.

Throughout the match, Culibrk struggled with serves and many of her double faults cost the pair the match. The pair ended with seven double faults compared to the four by the other pair.

Buzarnescu and Watson got off to a commanding 4-1 start to the second set. Gauvain fired the pair up with two aces to give the pair their second win of the set.

The set and match ended on a rally that took the side of Buzarnescu and Watson to finish the both sets 6-3.

“We were pretty sturdy down the baseline,” Gauvain said. “If we were a little more aggressive maybe it would have changed the match.”

The Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic will run through Sunday. Serena Williams and Johanna Konta will face off on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

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