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South Florida
Anna Parkhomenko is Excited to Compete as Alabama Women’s Tennis Rolls into Week Two
1/27/2021 4:43:00 PM | Women's Tennis
The rookie and the rest of the Crimson Tide are set for three matches in three days starting Thursday against South Florida after opening 2021 with a sweep of last weekend’s doubleheader
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Before her first tournament as a member of the Alabama women's tennis team, rookie Anna Parkhomenko didn't know what to expect from her first collegiate match.
"I was very nervous, but I felt much better after playing," Parkhomenko said after her first week of play.
After that first weekend of competition, Parkhomenko settled into the rigors of being of a collegiate tennis player, balancing school and tennis and everything else that goes along with it. She won four of her last five singles matches in the fall.
After playing in three different tournaments in the fall, Parkhomenko and her teammates went back to work, practicing and playing against each other for the next three months. In fact, three months to the day after her last match in the fall at the SEC Challenge No. 2, the Sumy, Ukraine, native returned to action last Saturday in a doubleheader against UAB and Alabama State.
This time though, it wasn't nervousness she felt in the days and moments leading up to her first dual match.
"I was really excited," Parkhomenko said. "I was mostly just ready to compete."
After three months, she and the rest of the Crimson Tide were ready to see someone besides each other on the other side of the net. The Tide's first day of dual-match play provided that times two, with a double header against UAB and Alabama State.
Parkhomenko had to wait a little longer than some of her teammates to get back out there. The Blazers didn't have enough players available to fill out all its spots in doubles. So when singles rolled around, she was more than ready to go.
She got off to a strong start, winning her first set 6-4, before losing the second set by the same score. That took the match to a 10-point tiebreak set. In that final set, Parkhomenko went down 9-6, giving her opponent match point.
"I knew I should win that match, so I started to really focus on each point," Parkhomenko said. "When it got to 9-6, I was like 'ok, stop, I can win this.'"
From that moment, with her teammates cheering her on, she went to work, point-by-point, grinding back into the match. She tied it up, and then took the lead. Needing to win by two, the set got 11-11 before Parkhomenko put it away 13-11.
"I felt pretty comfortable competing," she said. "I had to really concentrat at the end, focusing on playing one point at a time to win. Having my teammates cheering helped and I really like that about the college game."
In the second match of the day, she made her dual-match doubles debut, playing with veteran Moka Ito, taking a 6-3 win.
"She is so calm," Parkhomenko said of playing with Ito. "She's a great player and so nice. She helps keep me level when we play."
Parkhomenko made short work of her second singles opponent of the spring, winning 6-1, 6-0.
"I was more focused in the second match," she said. "In the first one I was so happy to be playing a match that I wasn't as focused. So in the second one, instead of playing 'kid ball' I worked on building the games point-by-point."
Now back in the competitive flow after back-to-back 7-0 victories last Saturday, Parkhomenko and the Tide return to competition on Thursday with South Florida at 11 a.m. CT, followed by another doubleheader on Saturday against Kennesaw State (12 p.m.) and Alabama A&M (4 p.m.).
Due to health and safety considerations in addition to the current guidelines, attendance at Alabama tennis home indoor competitions are closed to spectators. All three matches are slated to be streamed live.
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