Meri is the first Slovakian and Texas Longhorn to capture women’s tennis gold at the games.
On July 26, Texas Longhorns sophomore tennis standou Eszter Meri won the gold medal in women’s singles at the 2025 Rhine-Ruhr FISU World University Games in Essen, Germany.
Meri becomes the first Slovakian and Longhorn to capture gold at the games, securing the title with a 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 win over Russian Alevtina Ibragimova, who is currently ranked No. 210 by the WTA with a career high of No. 196.
After Ibragimova took a 2-1 lead, Meri battled back for a 2-2 tie, breaking again for her own lead of 4-2 and starting a string of three-straight breaks before Meri serving out the set at 6-3.
In the second set, two breaks by Ibragimova helped her out to leads of 2-0 and 5-1 to take the second set 6-1.
A break to open the decisive third set continued Ibragimova’s momentum, forcing Meri to show some resilience with consecutive breaks to take a 4-2 lead. Meri’s inability to hold her serve allowed Ibragimova to narrow the third set to 4-3, but after four games on serve, Meri’s late break to win 7-5 avoided a tiebreaker and secured the gold medal.