New Haven, QR2: (WC)Nicole Gibbs def. (4)Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6:3, 6:3
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Nicole said in her interview after the match that she will be going back to Stanford in the fall and playing two challengers straight after the US Open before then. Considering that she's already able to take out top 80 players and the NCAA is reverting to a super tiebreak in lieu of a third set for all Divison I college matches next year, I can't see how another year at Stanford is going to help her.
Maybe getting her degree is more important to her.. it is Stanford after all not some party school.
With this tournament, the US Open, and the challengers, I think there's a pretty decent chance we might see her in AO qualies (if she can get her ranking up enough) or even in the AO WC play off.
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Is it that she's going back to wrap up her degree? Well that's her option :shrug:
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I agree. She's been wanting to go to Stanford as a young teen and she is a self-admitted nerd. Balancing her studies and her tennis actually works to her advantage.
I think Gibbs wants to take out a top 20 player as well and to do that she definitely needs to improve her 2nd serve.
Isn't her last year? A pro career can wait for one year. If something happens, she still has a Stanford degree.
I just feel like there's a way to do both. She could take online classes while traveling on the tour, for example. Mallory Burdette going back to Stanford makes more sense to me because she only has one year left, but Nicole still has TWO years before graduating. There's also no guarantee she'll be able to graduate on time. Lots of college athletes need an extra semester or full year to finish because they have so much on their plate.
And on top of that, she'll only be able to play an extremely limited pro schedule at Stanford for the exact reason you mentioned: It's a very prestigious, difficult school. Laura Granville didn't play any pro events when she was there outside of the summer, Lilia Osterloh only played five of them during the school year. It would be a real shame to have the kind of summer Nicole has had and then not be able to build on it at all.
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No, she will be a junior.
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College doesn't have to be completed by age 22 or 23. Nicole should pursue the pro tour and take online etc. in the mean time.
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Gibbs originally wanted to turn pro right out of high school, but her parents urged her otherwise. In an interview, she said she really was resentful/regretted that decision but remained fully committed on graduating.
Gibbs has it good in Stanford. She may be doing well on the tour now, but it's not like she's top 150 level right out of college/had she turned pro now. At least in Stanford, she can have NCAA glory, which can reward her with WCs to tournaments in the summer.
Stanford may be prestigious, but it doesn't mean it's necessarily difficult. :shrug: A lot of student-athletes there don't really struggle with the "student" part.
This. This. This. From my extensive experiences with Harvard students, the same goes for Harvard.
Both Gibbs and Burdette seem very promising.
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Bye b LiDL! 
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