Texas senior Malaika Rapolu saving best for last as Longhorns open NCAA tennis postseason
Early in the spring season, with the Texas women’s tennis team still trying to find its footing, senior Malaika Rapolu had a reckoning.
The Longhorns, ranked No. 10 in the country at the time, found themselves locked in a 2-2 draw with No. 4 Georgia. Texas couldn’t turn to Nicole Rivkin, its young star who had left school in December to turn pro in her native Germany. Nor did it have Australian Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz, one of the world’s top youth players, who committed to Texas but whose academic paperwork couldn’t weave its way through the NCAA’s bureaucratic labyrinth. And the Longhorns couldn’t lean heavily on Sabina Zeynalova, an All-Big 12 player from Ukraine who has played only nine singles matches this season because of a recurring back injury.
But Rapolu, a homegrown talent from Cedar Park in her fourth season on the squad, met the moment. In a grueling singles match, she overcame a 5-3 deficit in the second set and fought off several match points to beat Mell Reasco 7-6 (6), 7-5. Texas would go on to win the nonconference dual match 4-3, and Rapolu would have her best college season when her team needed her the most.
“She just out-toughed the other kid and won four games in a row to win that match,” UT coach Howard Joffe said. “And from there, she just has been a real force. We went from there to the national indoors, where she won all her matches convincingly. It became clear that Malaika could play right at the top.”
Three months later and on the verge of the postseason, Rapolu looks back at that moment as a turning point for both her and the team, which will open the NCAA Tournament against Harvard on Saturday at the Texas Tennis Center.
“That match really pushed me and challenged me in a different way,” Rapolu said Thursday before a practice session. “It definitely set me up for the rest of the season because it put me in a pressure moment. From there, I really was able to raise my level; I did flip a switch, and I played at a higher level.”
More: Texas men's tennis eager to prove it's the country's best team as NCAA Tournament begins
Malaika Rapolu is the NCAA's winningest player this year
Rapolu is 35-5 in singles play and 23-10 in doubles with partners Vivian Ovrootsky and Tanya Sasnouskaya. Combine those 58 wins with her results in the fall, and Joffe says Rapolu has more total wins than any other female player in college tennis.
Even more impressive, those wins have come against the best competition. Rapolu is 7-1 on the top line of singles play this season and boasts a 13-3 record against ranked players. She had lots of experience before this season, going 64-19 in her first three years, but never had played on the top line. All but three of her matches in those three years had been on the fourth, fifth or sixth line — spots in team tennis not exactly played before big crowds or loaded with pressure.
Joffe said Rapolu's senior success hasn’t been a complete surprise, based on her deadly baseline game and steadfast will to win.
“The thing that is really impressive is the way that she's uncovered the resources that I believe were always there,” Joffe said. “She's tenacious; she's ferocious.”
She’s full of grit, as she showed during that win against Georgia. While Rapolu says, “I’m definitely stronger than I was three or four years ago, and I can hit the ball harder,” she also states “the biggest thing that has changed over the past couple of years has kind of just been like the mental side for me.
“Just being tougher in the harder moments and the pressure moments, that's really where I have seen the biggest improvement in myself, and why I've been able to win more matches,” Rapolu said. “Coming into college, I was always pretty tough playing. I would always fight. But I felt like there was something missing. I feel like this year I've really found like that piece where, when things get hard, when I'm physically dying, mentally I'm still able to push.
“And I think that's kind of what I mean by mental toughness. Just being able to push 1% more than what your opponent can do. And that's really where the difference comes. And that's where I've done a better job this year, especially when we really needed it.”
Will banged-up Texas make an NCAA run?
Texas (21-5), which won national championships in 2021 and 2022, will need all it can get from Rapolu as well as everyone else on the roster if it hopes to make a surprising push for another title. The Longhorns are seeded ninth in the NCAA Tournament, which means they won’t host a second weekend for the first time since losing in round two in 2019. If the Longhorns survive this weekend against Harvard and either Georgia Tech or Illinois, they are likely to travel to Los Angeles next weekend to face No. 8 UCLA, which beat Texas 5-2 in the spring’s first dual match.
Rapolu says injuries to Zeynalova as well as other players have taken their toll, especially when it comes to the team’s depth. But she also thinks that has prepared the Longhorns for the moments that come with the postseason.
“We don't have the luxury of subbing players like other teams,” she said. “Take some girl out and put someone else in sixth? We can’t do that. But I think the one positive (with injuries) is it really shapes us to be ready for the tough competition that we're going to face this weekend and moving forward.”
Joffe said he’s confident that his team can meet the challenge, especially with Rapolu leading the way.
“It's a team that has taken a lot of different hits,” he said. “If you take any team in the country and you take the three top players out, they ain't No. 8 or 9 in the country. I do think that you're going to see the best of our team here in the postseason.”
NCAA tennis tournament: Rounds 1 and 2
All matches at Texas Tennis Center, 2100 Comal St.
Saturday's first round — No. 45 Harvard (19-4) at No. 9 Texas (21-5), 1 p.m.; No. 24 Georgia Tech (13-9) vs. No. 38 Illinois (17-9), 3 p.m.; Sunday's second round — Texas-Harvard winner vs. Georgia Tech-Illinois winner, 1 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Malaika Rapolu saving best for last as Texas tennis enters postseason
