The Samoan tennis player, Steffi Carruthers, is taking plenty of lessons from her opening tournament of 2014.
The 20 year old was beaten in the first round of qualifying at the US$25,000 event in Rancho, Santa Fe, near San Diego.
Carruthers led early in both sets against American Dominique Schaefer before going 6-2 6-3.
"There are a lot of American players and a lot of them don't even have rankings or points but play a very high level of tennis. It was tough yesterday and there were a few things I wish I had handled a little bit better to pull through but I have to learn from it and I have to live with that and move on so I can use that in my future matches".
This is Carruthers' first full season as a touring professional, having left Samoa to play tournaments in the Americas in the middle of last year.
