Robin Anderson and Chanelle Van Nguyen have known each other for 10 years – since they were playing junior tennis. Not only do these UCLA women’s tennis teammates know each other’s games very well, but they also have a friendship that goes beyond the court.
But on Sunday, that friendship had to be put on hold.
For the first time since 2004, two members from the same school played for the singles championship at the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships.
The two seniors found themselves going against each other in a tournament match for the first time.
As coach Stella Sampras Webster told both of them before the match, “Make this all business. Nothing personal.”
And after No. 2 seed Anderson defeated the sixth-seeded Van Nguyen 6-0, 6-2 to claim the singles title, Van Nguyen demonstrated that there was indeed nothing personal about the match. She went up to her friend and gave her a hug.
“I’m really happy for her,” Van Nguyen said. “This is why she’s No. 1 in the nation. She’s really good.”
Sampras Webster added how proud she was of them for how they both handled the situation, given that they are close friends.
“It’s never fun playing your teammate, but I think they handled it extremely well,” Sampras Webster said.
For Anderson, the singles title avenges her loss to Jamie Loeb from the University of North Carolina in the finals of the same tournament last year, even though Anderson and sophomore Jennifer Brady collectively won the doubles title last year.
“It’s awesome,” Anderson said. “I didn’t have a ton of expectations going into the tournament to be able to come out and do really well at the beginning of the year, so that was great.”
Anderson defeated North Carolina’s third-seeded Hayley Carter to reach the finals, while Van Nguyen did not drop a set in her matches preceding the finals.
“It was really nice for the fans and the members to see college women’s tennis play at such a great level and have great sportsmanship,” Sampras Webster said.
On the doubles side, juniors Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips defeated Miami’s Lina Lileikite and Stephanie Wagner for the consolation doubles title, after originally being knocked out of the main draw in their first match. The Bruin tandem was down early in the match but came back to win 3-6, 6-1, 10-6 in a super tiebreaker.
“I loved the way they were able to come back and play some really great doubles,” Sampras Webster said. “It was great to see their form just coming back. … It just shows that they didn’t get too down off that first loss that first day.”
By reaching the singles finals, both Anderson and Van Nguyen earned automatic bids for the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in New York in November, where their friendship may be put to the test once more.