CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Former LSU women’s tennis star Bruna Colosio upended top-seeded Anna Kournikova in the first round of the Boyd Tinsley USTA Pro Tennis Championships on Wednesday as the Lady Tiger All-American registered a 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4, victory here in Charlottesville, Va.
“This is like a one-time opportunity,” said Colosio. “That’s how I saw it and I tried to take advantage of it. All of the Brazilians in my hometown were e-mailing me, saying ‘You can do it.’ … I didn’t think I had anything to lose.”
Colosio, a native of Cascaval, Brazil, is currently the No. 384-ranked player in the world and was competing in the 11th pro tournament of her career after graduating from LSU in the spring of 2002. With the victory, Colosio moved on to face Bulgaria’s Dimana Krastevitch in the second round of competition.
As a Lady Tiger, Colosio was a three-time All-American and earned the 2001 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Award.
She ended her illustrious four-year career with a school-best winning percentage of .776 en route to becoming the eighth-winningest women’s tennis player in LSU history. Colosio, who was ranked as high as No. 9 in the nation as a sophomore, accumulated a stellar 97-28 singles record in college.
Kournikova, a former top-10 player now ranked No. 72 in the world, dropped the first set quickly and fell behind 5-2 in the second frame before rallying to a 7-5 victory in the second-set tiebreaker. With the match evened at one set apiece, Colosio continued to take advantage of Kournikova’s shaky serves and posted a 6-4 win in the third set to advance to the second round of the Boyd Tinsley USTA Pro Tennis Championships.
“I don’t think that I played my best tennis, but I knew what I needed to do,” Colosio said. “Thank God I was able to do it in the third set.”