ORLANDO, Fla. – Savannah Dada-Mascoll completed yet another historic feat Tuesday, winning in straight sets to advance to the Round of 32 at the NCAA Singles Championships.
Dada-Mascoll prevailed 6-3, 6-3 against Cal's Naomi Xu at the USTA National Campus.
After becoming the first player to represent App State at the NCAA Singles Championships, she added to her record-breaking résumé by advancing in the bracket. The next step is a Round of 32 match Wednesday between the fourth-seeded Dada-Mascoll and Clemson's Ria Bhakta, who earned a spot in the field by going 3-1 at her ITA Sectional earlier this month.
The match will be streamed on ESPN+, but a start time has not been announced. The winner advances to a Round of 16 match against either Georgia's Anastasiia Gureva or Southern Cal's Emma Charney.
Prior to arriving in Orlando, Dada-Mascoll made national headlines by winning a combined eight matches against ranked opponents at the ITA All-American Championships in late September and her ITA Regional in October.
She continued her strong play Tuesday, pulling away for a 4-1 lead in the first set after being tied at 1-all. She closed out the set with a serve-and-volley winner.
In the second set, Dada-Mascoll trailed initially before tying the score at two games apiece. She then took four of the next five games, closing out the victory by holding serve for a 5-3 lead and breaking Xu's serve with a volley winner that followed a crosscourt forehand deep into the corner of the deuce court.
