THE BASICS:
 
- Location: Cambridge, Mass. (DuPont Tennis Courts and the J.B. Carr Tennis Bubble)
 
- The Lead: At the 2023 MIT Invitational, first-year Katya Shepherd Johnson (Takoma Park, Md.) captured the main draw singles championship, along with senior Kimberly Liao (Commack, N.Y.) and junior Jay Lu (Austin, Texas) earning the main draw doubles title. In addition, the Engineers first-year Saina Deshpande (Pune, India) won the consolation singles championship. Liao was also selected as the tournament's Sportsmanship Award recipient.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED IN SINGLES ACTION:
 
- In the first round, the Engineers picked up victories by Gandra, Shepherd Johnson, Lu and first-year Alicen Liu (Novi, Mich.). Lu and Liu met in the quarterfinals after two straight-set victories and in that matchup, it was Lu that came away with the 7-5, 6-1 victory.
 
- After a 6-0, 6-1 win in round one, Shepherd Johnson took a pair of three-set victories to advance to the semifinals. In an all-MIT semifinal of Shepherd Johnson and Lu, it was the first-year that took that match by a 6-2, 6-3 margin. In the final, Shepherd Johnson defeated Julia Ross of Bowdoin for a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
 
- Shepherd Johnson is just the second MIT player to win the main draw singles championship at this event and the first since Libby Rickeman won it as a first-year in 2017.
 
- In the consolation bracket, Deshpande captured the victory with a 6-1, 6-2 final over Julia Lendel of Amherst. Liao advanced to the semifinals of the consolation bracket with a 6-4, 4-6, 10-1 win over Nikki Kintiroglou of Tufts.
 
A LOOK INSIDE THE DOUBLES BRACKET:
 
- Liao and Lu came in as the top seed in the main doubles bracket and advanced to the final with a pair of 8-4 victories. In the final, the MIT duo met Zoe Kava and Rebecca Lim of Tufts and defeated them in another 8-4 margin as this marks the second straight doubles main draw championship for Lu.
 
- MIT sophomores Alaina Kolli (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Artemis Pados (Delray Beach, Fla.) teamed up to defeat Steffy Jullian and Kintiroglou in the first round with an 8-3 final.
 
- In the consolation bracket, Shepherd Johnson and Liu advanced to the final with an 8-6 win over Jullian and Kintiroglou to set up the final with Ross and Elizabeth Yu of Bowdoin. In that match, the duo from Bowdoin captured the consolation bracket in a hard-fought 8-6 final score.
 
UP NEXT:
 
- The Engineers return to action for the ITA New England Regional Tournament on September 22-24. That event will be hosted by Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.
 
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