Hawaii’s Petra Melounova advances to the NCAA tennis tournament’s round of 16

Petra Melounova is taking her unconventional serve into uncharted territory.

The Hawaii women’s tennis junior became the program’s first player to reach the round of 16 in the NCAA singles tournament, as Melounova defeated Michigan’s Chiara Lommer 6-4, 6-1 in the second round Tuesday at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.

The three-time Big West player of the year played all of the 2018-19 season with a right shoulder injury that has not allowed her to hit overhead from behind the service line or on lobs. But the 61st-ranked Melounova improved to 15-4 with her ninth straight singles win anyway; her underhanded, sliced serves did enough to throw a ranked opponent off for the second straight day, and her forehand powered her through.

She now faces No. 22 Felicity Maltby of Texas Tech today, no earlier than noon. The match might be televised live on the Tennis Channel, per UH.

Melounova, who was the first UH women’s player to win an NCAA tournament match in 2017, came back to win Set 1 over Lommer after falling behind 0-2, breaking Lommer to go up 5-3 and then holding serve. She jumped out 5-0 in Set 2 and held serve at 5-1, hitting a forehand winner to the far corner to complete the match.

She became the first Big West player to reach the round of 16 since UC Santa Barbara’s Jean Okada — a Lahainaluna graduate — did so in 1996.