Martina Okalova Earns Second Straight Women's Tennis Player of the Week Honor
1/28/2020 1:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis
TULSA, Okla. – The University of Tulsa's Martina Okalova earned her second straight American Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week award, as announced by the league office on Tuesday.
With the two conference weekly awards this month, she has swept all three American women's tennis awards from the fall and spring seasons. The Slovakia native was named The American Women's Player of the Month for September. In total, she has also been named women's tennis player of the week four times in her career.
Okalova is currently ranked 52nd in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division I Individual Rankings, which is the highest singles ranking of her career. Alongside teammate Vera Ploner, the two are the 40th-ranked doubles tandem in the country.
Over the weekend, the Golden Hurricane competed in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend as the No. 3-seed in the Duke regional. Tulsa opened the invite by upsetting No. 2-seeded Mississippi State, 4-3. The senior went 2-0 this past Saturday, capturing wins at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles. In singles play, she improved to 6-0 in the top spot, as she took down No. 84 Emma Antonaki in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2. In doubles, the All-American duo blanked No. 43 Magda Adaloglou and Tamara Racine, 6-0. With the win, Tulsa improved to 6-0. It marked the program's best start to a season since 2006.
TU would advance to Sunday's championship match against the top-seed and fifth-ranked Duke. Okalova and Ploner captured their sixth consecutive victory at No. 1 doubles with a 7-5 defeat over Chloe Beck and Kelly Chen. Okalova then faced Chen, who is the No. 10 ranked singles player in the country. The match would go unfinished 2-6, 2-4, as the Hurricane suffered their first loss of the year.
Tulsa returns to action on Saturday at 12 noon, as the Golden Hurricane head to Stillwater to play in-state rival and No. 10 Oklahoma State.
Players Mentioned
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