BATON ROUGE, La. – Anita Sahdiieva, an incoming junior from Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, has signed with the LSU women’s tennis ahead of the 2023-24 season, head coach Taylor Fogleman announced on Thursday.
“Chris (Simpson) and I are thrilled that Anita chose to become a Tiger,” Fogleman said. “She’s a young lady that loves tennis and is motivated to improve both her game and herself off the courts. She had a tremendous first two years at Baylor and we think that she’s only scratched the surface of where she can go with her tennis. She certainly could have gone to many other places, but we’re humbled that she’s joining us at LSU!”
Sahdiieva’s two seasons as a Baylor Bear saw the program reach the NCAA Tournament in both seasons with the Ukrainian player featuring in both the singles and doubles lineup throughout. In her freshman campaign in 2021-22, she posted an 18-9 mark in singles and a 15-10 mark in doubles. Her 18 wins in singles ranked third on the team while her five wins in Big 12 play also ranked third. Her strongest moment of the season came in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Washington, where she earned a 6-4, 6-1 win against Kelly Leung to clinch a 4-2 win for the Bears.
In her second season of competition, Sahdiieva earned twelve wins in singles primarily playing at the No. 2&3 courts for the Bears and earn 13 wins in doubles playing with four different partners across all three doubles spots. With contributions from Sahdiieva, Baylor qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season and advanced to the second round before falling to Texas A&M, 4-0. She finished her career as a Bear with a 30-24 record in singles and a 28-21 tally in doubles.
Sahdiieva has been active in ITF tournaments following the conclusion of Baylor’s season, qualifying in the main draw of singles in the W15 Rancho Sante Fe in May, the W15 San Diego in the first week of June and the second W15 San Diego just this week. She also competed in the doubles main draw of these tournaments, finishing in the semifinals at the W15 Rancho Sante Fe with Nikki Redelijk and then finishing runner-up with Malaika Rapolu in the first W15 San Diego.
She is the fourth signing of the summer for the Tigers, joining graduate transfer Aran Teixidó Garcia of Memphis, fellow junior Florentine Dekkers from Kansas State and graduate transfer Maya Tahan of Miami. She will join the team in Baton Rouge in August ahead of the 2023-24 season.