Girls tennis player of the year
Name: Rita Bermudez
School: Canyon del Oro
Year in school: Junior
Sport: Girls tennis
From the archives: Canyon del Oro's Rita Bermudez won her first singles state title Monday, while her brother Carlos from Palo Verde fell just short of his third straight championship.
Rita Bermudez, a junior, won the girls Division II championship with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Aleeza Kanner from Phoenix Sunnyslope. The first set was close and lasted nearly 90 minutes, but Bermudez locked it down in the second set.
"I think my match before tired me out," she said of beating Catalina Foothills' Rachana Bhat 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals earlier at Paseo Racquet Center.
"I was really tired; I could not feel my feet," Bermudez added.
But the feeling of winning her first championship made everything better.
"It's still hard to believe," she said. "I'm shaking right now. It's awesome."
CDO coach Casey Pfordt could not recall the last Dorado to win singles title.
"It's been quite a few years," she said with a laugh. — Daniel Gaona, 2011
