Hawaii tennis: Petra Melounova makes NCAA sweet 16

UPDATE: After a blistering start, Petra Melounova could not keep it going in the NCAA round of 16 on Wednesday. She jumped out to a 5-1 lead in Set 1 on Texas Tech’s Felicity Maltby — only to see Maltby rattle off 12 straight games. Maltby prevailed 7-5, 6-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Melounova will go into her senior year with the only three NCAA singles wins in program history (two as a junior, one as a freshman).

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Petra Melounova is breaking serves and breaking new ground.

The Hawaii tennis junior advanced to the NCAA tournament round of 16 with a straight-sets win over Michigan’s Chiara Lommer at the USTA Campus in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday morning, becoming the first Rainbow Wahine player to play this far into the 64-player event.

Melounova w/the forehand winner to become the first Rainbow Wahine to advance to the NCAA Championships Sweet 16! #GoPetra #GoBows🌈🎾 pic.twitter.com/cZ2ZCgVtrj

— U. of Hawai‘i Tennis (@UofHawaiiTennis) May 21, 2019

Melounova, who has thrived with her heavy groundstrokes despite an unconventional underhanded serve, came back from an 0-2 hole in Set 1 to take it 6-4, then broke Lommer’s serve twice in jumping out to a 5-0 lead in Set 2 and finishing it off at 6-1.

On Wednesday, the 61st-ranked Melounova faces Texas Tech’s Felicity Maltby, who is ranked No. 22. The match time is to be announced by the NCAA. UPDATE: Melounova’s match will be at or slightly after 6 p.m. local time, so noon Hawaii time. It should be televised live on the Tennis Channel.

Here’s the updated bracket:

#HawaiiWTEN's Petra Melounova will be playing at 12:00 p.m. HT on Court 2 in the NCAA Women's Singles Championships Round of 16 on Wednesday. Here's the updated NCAA bracket pic.twitter.com/wqGfJjYj4c

— U. of Hawai‘i Tennis (@UofHawaiiTennis) May 22, 2019

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The last Big West player to reach the round of 16 was UC Santa Barbara’s Jean Okada in 1996.