SHYMKENT, KAZAKHSTAN – Former University of Colorado women’s tennis player Julyette Steur advanced all the way to the championship match in her first professional main draw appearance at the Shymkent Open, an outdoor clay court tournament with a $10,000 purse here in Kazakhstan.
After successfully going through the qualifying tournament, she defeated the tournament’s top-seeded player, Russian Maragriaz Lazareva, who is ranked No. 358 in the world, 6-4, 6-2.
After defeating Lazareva, Steur defeated another Russian, Ksenija Sharifova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the second round, advancing to the quarterfinals, where she defeated Gozal Ainitdinova from Kazahkstan, 7-5, 7-5.