Hawaii women’s tennis: Melounova breaks ground at ITA tournament

Hawaii tennis star Petra Melounova is again going where other Rainbow Wahine have not.

Melounova, an All-American and the three-time Big West player of the year, opens her senior season at the Oracle ITA Masters tournament that is underway at Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif. She is the first Wahine player to go to the fifth-year tourney.

It’s a special early-season invitational for returning conference players of the year, plus other highly ranked players. Melounova was recently awarded a ranking of 33, the highest preseason rank for a Wahine player to date.

Melounova is seeded 11th in the 32-player field. She’s already beaten 22nd-seeded Brindtha Ramasamy of Miami of Ohio, 7-5, 6-1, to reach the second round.

#HawaiiWTEN standout Petra Melounova is playing this week in the Oracle ITA Masters tournament in Malibu against some of the best returning players in the NCAA.

She’s still using the underhanded serve required because of a persistent shoulder injury. pic.twitter.com/9UIXnSEWEr

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 26, 2019

She’ll meet sixth-seeded Alexa Graham of North Carolina at a time to be determined on Friday.

UPDATE: UNC’s Alexa Graham ousted Melounova from the winners bracket with a 6-0, 6-4 win on Friday morning. Graham is ranked No. 4 in the country. Melounova will next compete in the ITA All-America tournament in Tulsa, Okla., starting Oct. 5 along with her doubles partner Nikola Dolakova. Wahine newcomer Bojana Markovic will also compete.

“I’m really hoping to play some good, quality matches. Really hoping to improve every game I will play over there,” said Melounova, who became the first Wahine player to advance to the NCAA tournament round of 16 in the spring, before departing for California on Tuesday. “It’s definitely going to be challenging, because there’s top-10 players and other players of the year from other conferences. So it’s going to be very challenging but I’m excited to go there.”

Said coach Jun Hernandez, “It’s going to be tough. Everybody out there can all play. So it’s going to be a great start for her as far as setting up the tone, her mind-set going into the season that she can play with anybody, and also testing out how far she can go again as far as the national scene.”

Melounova will employ an updated version of her underhanded serve that she went to last year as a solution for a persistent shoulder injury.

She tried to rest it and did rehab work in the offseason, to no avail. She could’ve opted to have a medical procedure to fix it, she said, but that would’ve meant missing her senior year.

“I was really disappointed. I was doubting everything I’m doing (rehab wise), why isn’t it working for me,” Melounova said. “I guess this is just it; this is the situation I’m in, and I have to work with it, just like last year. Any other year, my team has been through challenges. I’ve got really good girls coming in, I’ve got new teammates, and I’m just trying to help out as much as I can even though I’m not myself, entirely.”

Hernandez noted he’s worked with her on some tweaks to the unconventional serve, which proved troublesome for many opponents last year.

Melounova still prefers to finish points quicker than the average player.

“She’s been having a lot of fun with it. Different slices, topspin, different locations. Even mixing up a serve-and-volley,” Hernandez said. “Really being creative so she can do different things, not just being predictable serving underhand. I think it’s going to serve to her advantage … because people are not used to that.”

Some Oracle ITA Masters matches are being live streamed.