Photograph by Lamar Jacaman for Texas Student Media
Wild cards Karina Miller and Malaika Rapolu each went the distance to win their semifinal matches the H-E-B Women’s Pro Tennis Open on Saturday at the Texas Tennis Center in Austin. But their final sets were lessons in contrast.
Rapolu, a hometown favorite and a recent UT grad, scored a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Haruka Kaji of Japan. Miller, a 22-year-old who starred at the University of Michigan, outlasted Whitney Osiugwe, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, in a final set that overflowed with breaks. Miller, above, is at her career-high singles ranking of No. 487.
Osuigwe, a 22-year-old from Bradenton, Fla., served for the match at 5-4 but true to form was broken after double-faulting then hitting a backhand long. At 5-5, 0-30, Miller looked as if she might suffer a similar fate but held on as her opponent started making more errors. Oswuigwe lost four straight points to lose the match.
Rapolu, 21, looked out of sorts in the first set as the 30-year-old Kaji, ranked No. 275, looked as if she might reach her fourth singles final of the year. Rapolu scored a break late in the second set and never looked back. Kaji did put a fight serving at 0-4, but Rapolu eventually broke to win that long game. In a rare occurrence in the singles semifinals, Rapolu served an ace down the line to close the match. She is also at her career-high ranking, No. 809.
Playing together in their first tournament, Diae El Jardi of Morocco and Thiasa Grana Pedretti of Brazil won the doubles championship by defeating the top-seeded team of Osuigwe and Alana Smith, 6-2, 4-6, 14-12. El Jardi and Pedretti, who said they didn’t formally meet until this week, were down 7-3 in the championship tiebreak before they rallied for the title.