Pronouncing the names of freshmen players Mariia Solnyshkina of Russia, Paulina Bakaite of Lithuania, Kamila Umarova of Uzbekistan and Basak Akbas of Turkey is not a problem for FIU women’s tennis coach Katarina Petrovic.
The names roll off the tongue of the well-traveled Petrovic, a native of Serbia who travels to the European Tennis Championships every year to recruit potential FIU players.
“That’s my must-go event,” Petrovic said. “And the best thing a coach can do when recruiting a player is pronounce her name correctly.”
Petrovic’s linguistic skills are obviously impeccable because her current recruiting class is ranked No.