WACO, Texas — Maxi Homberg is an All-American.

The Pepperdine junior joined elite company as the 52nd Wave to earn Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American honors with his second-round NCAA Singles Championship win in Waco, Texas on Wednesday. To do so, Homberg routed Denver junior Raffaello Papajcik 6-3, 6-3, setting up a round of 16 match with TCU's Lui Maxted tomorrow at 10 a.m. CT/8 a.m. PT.

With the win, Homberg is the first Wave to win multiple NCAA Tournament matches since Alex Sarkissian made his run to the 2014 finals. Homberg is also the third German-born Pepperdine All-American to play for Adam Schaechterle and Tassilo Schmid; the others are Adrian Oetzbach and Tim Zeitvogel.

"Of course, there was a bit of pressure with having the chance to become an All-American," Homberg told Cracked Racquets afterward. "I was a little bit nervous in the beginning, but I have been working hard over the past month. I felt comfortable with my forehand dominating him in the backhand corner. On my return games, I felt like I could come into the rallies really well."

Despite what the 6-3 score would indicate, Homberg and Papajcik traded breaks several times in the first set. The sixth game was the turning point: Homberg won the first three points, then broke the Denver junior on a nine-hit rally that featured several excellent forehands from the Wave.

From there, he consolidated the break to take a 4-3 lead at the changeover, before getting a bit of a reprieve in his next return game. Papajcik double-faulted twice — including on break point — then Homberg consolidated the break with a love hold to win the first set 6-3.

Picking up right where he left off, Homberg broke Papajcik to begin the second set and held on deuce point in the second game. The match was played on serve for the next two games before Homberg won another break point in the fifth game to take a 4-1 lead. Homberg won yet another deuce point to consolidate the break for a 5-1 lead. However, Papajcik had one more push. The Denver junior held serve in the seventh game, then won the first three points in the next game en route to breaking Homberg for the final time of the match. 

But Homberg shook off the eighth game. Not afraid to advance to the net, Homberg strung together a slew of several good rallies and pieced together a 40-0 lead. On match point, Homberg gradually zig-zagged his way up to the net, then used a backhand slice on the ad side. Homberg watched Papajcik's return sail long before celebrating becoming Pepperdine's latest All-American.

All NCAA matches will be livestreamed via ESPN+ and will have color commentary from Cracked Racquets. Pertinent links can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.

RESULTS