Team USA’s Caroline Fouts continued her strong form over the past month by following up her Pan American World Championships Qualifier win with the largest PSA title of her career at the $12k Hyder Cup in New York City Sunday, May 3, in New York City.
The Hyder Cup was Fouts’ first PSA appearance of the season after a busy college schedule throughout the winter months. The Harvard No. 1 didn’t drop a game en route to the final, beating Meagan Best, Madeleine Hylland and then top seed Ainaa Amani.
That set her up for a showdown with fourth seed Margot Prow in the final, a match that would swing one way and then the other. After taking a 2-1 lead, Fouts then fought back from 7-3 down in the fourth to bring up two championship balls at 10-8, only to see both disappear on stroke decisions. Further opportunities would come and go at 11-10 and 13-12, before Prow eventually clinched the tiebreak, 16-14, to force a decider. Fouts, though, showed impressive levels of composure, putting the disappointment of missing out in game four behind, racing out to a 10-1 lead in little more than five minutes.
The result sends Fouts up fourteen places in the world rankings to No. 72, making her the fifth highest ranked American.
