LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – After a big opening weekend, UNLV senior Aiwen Zhu was named Mountain West Women's Tennis Player of the Week for the seventh time in her career, the league announced Wednesday.
 
The native of Wuxi, China, went a combined 5-1 in singles and doubles at the prestigious Freeman Memorial Championships in Las Vegas. Zhu's 2-1 mark in singles included upsetting the nation's No. 49 player from Texas while she and partner En-Pei Huang went 3-0 to take the doubles crown. It marked the first time in the 17 years of hosting the elite field each January that the Rebels won a singles or doubles title at the Freeman.
 
Zhu is now all alone in third place for career conference weekly nods after having won four last spring as a junior and two as a freshman in 2016. She needs two more such honors to catch former All-American Elena Gantcheva who earned nine from 2005-08.
 
The Rebels open dual match play this weekend with a trip to the annual ITA Kickoff Weekend event. UNLV will face host Pepperdine, ranked seventh nationally, on Saturday starting at 10 a.m.
 

UNLV'S ALL-TIME MW PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
1. 9, Elena Gantcheva, 2005-08
2. 8, Lucia Batta, 2011-14
3. 7, Aiwen Zhu, 2016-SA