Williams teams up to win Midland Invitational doubles title

Whitney Williams of Anchorage won her fifth career doubles tennis tournament with Abilene Christian University after teaming with Erin Walker to win the Midland Racquet Club Invitational in Texas.

Williams, a junior, and Walker, a senior, captured the title over the second-seeded team from North Texas by winning a tiebreaker in the final.

The Abilene Christian duo rallied from a 7-4 deficit in the game score to force the tiebreak. There, Williams and Walker came back from a 5-2 hole to win six of the next seven points and prevail 8-6.

It marked the first Midland championship by Abilene Christian since 2010.

In reaching the finals, sixth-seeded Williams and Walker survived a grueling stretch of matches against high-profile teams.

They beat unseeded North Texas 8-2 in the first round and then doubled up Nebraska 8-4 to reach the quarterfinals. That win was followed by another triumph over the Cornhuskers, this time beating the third seeds 8-3.

In the semifinals, Williams and Walker scored a giant 8-4 upset of the top-seeded team from Texas Tech.