Malaika Rapolu (born April 18, 2003) is an American professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. She has career-high

rankings A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

of No. 517 in singles, achieved on March 17, 2025, and of No. 855 in doubles, achieved on June 26, 2023.

Early life

Rapolu was born in

Cedar Park, Texas Cedar Park is a city and a suburb of Austin, Texas, Austin in the U.S. state of Texas, approximately northwest of the center of Austin. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 77,595, and in 2022 ...

. She began playing tennis at the age of seven, coached by her father, Madhuker. She attended

Round Rock High School Round Rock High School is a public high school located in Round Rock, Texas, a suburb of North Austin. Founded in 1867, it is the oldest high school in the Round Rock Independent School District. As of 2021, it is the largest high school in the ...

and was later homeschooled.

College career

In April 2020, she committed to play collegiate tennis for the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

. She played her final season in 2024.

Professional career

In October 2024, she won back-to-back $15k titles in

Huamantla Huamantla () is a small city in Huamantla Municipality, the municipality of the same name in the eastern half of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. The area has a long indigenous history, but the city itself was not founded until the early colonial per ...

. The following month, she won the $40k H-E-B Women's Pro Tennis Open in

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

as a wildcard. With her title in Austin, she rose 245 places in the WTA rankings to a career-high of No. 564 on November 18, 2024. In February 2025, she made her

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

debut as a wildcard at the

ATX Open The ATX Open is a professional women's tennis event held in Austin, Texas, United States. The first edition took place from 27 February to 5 March 2023. The ATX Open is part of the WTA Tour and is listed as a WTA 250 tournament. The tournament was ...

, but lost in the first round to

Nuria Párrizas Díaz Nuria Párrizas Díaz (born 15 July 1991) is a Spanish people, Spanish professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked as high as world No. 45 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she first achieved in March 2 ...

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rapolu, Malaika 2003 births Living people 21st-century American sportswomen American female tennis players American tennis players of Indian descent People from Cedar Park, Texas Tennis players from Austin, Texas Texas Longhorns women's tennis players American people of Telugu descent