Justine Leong Wins First Match at Oracle ITA Fall National Championships

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - First-year Justine Leong has had an impressive start to her collegiate tennis career at the Division III level for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, winning the National Player of the Month honors for October after winning the ITA Cup Division III national championships in both singles and doubles. On Wednesday, she extended her success to even higher levels.

In the opening round of the Oracle ITA Fall National Championships at the Newport Beach Tennis Club, a 64-player field made up of mostly the top Division I players in the country, Leong dominated in a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Janice Shin of defending national champion Stanford. Shin had a 29-5 record for the Cardinal last year, mostly playing in the No. 5 position, including the clinching win over Georgia in the national championship match, giving Stanford the 4-0 win. 

Leong remains undefeated in singles in her brief collegiate career at 11-0, including a win over Shin of Division I Stanford and Ghazal Pakbaten, the No. 1 singles player at Division II Concordia Irvine, at the opening Fall Scramble hosted by CMS on Sept. 20. Pakbaten is the only player to take a set off of her, before Leong bounced back for a 2-6, 6-1, 12-10 win in her second collegiate match. 

The road gets even more challenging for Leong tomorrow on the second day of the Oracle ITA Fall National Championships, as she advances to play Jada Hart of UCLA in the Round of 32.