Stunova’s Long Journey Ends With a Title : Tennis: Rio Mesa High exchange student wins Southern Section individual championship. Calabasas doubles team also comes home a winner.

In more ways than one, Zuzana Stunova has come a long way.

The Rio Mesa High junior, an exchange student from the Czech Republic, left her sponsor’s home in Oxnard at 6:30 a.m. Friday for her scheduled 9 a.m. semifinal match in the Southern Section individual tournament at Linborg Racquet Club.

Although the match didn’t begin until 10:20 because of wet courts, Stunova’s trip was worth it.

The second-seeded Stunova, who lost in the first round of the tournament last year, disposed of Corona del Mar’s Nina Vaughn, 6-4, 6-4, then upset top-seeded Faye DeVera of Villa Park by keeping her at the baseline to win the singles title, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5.

“I’m going to call my mom at home,” an overjoyed Stunova said after the match. “I’m going to tell her that I won. This is a big tournament.”

In doubles play, team chemistry was the key as Shera Wiegler and Kirsten Gross of Calabasas brought home the championship, giving Deanna Wiegler, Shera’s mother, an enjoyable 50th-birthday present.

The Calabasas pair breezed through their semifinal against Alissa Scott and Megan Wachtler of Corona del Mar in less than an hour, 6-0, 6-1.

In the final, they came from behind time and again to hand defending champions Pilar Montgomery and Sarita Yardi of Santa Barbara their first loss of the year, 7-5 (8-6), 7-5 (8-6).

“It’s our senior year and we were pumped to win this,” said Wiegler, who teamed with Gross to reach the semifinals when both were freshmen. “It’s funny but I was confident the whole time.”

They had ample opportunity to fret. The pair faced three set points in the first set before rallying to send it to a tiebreaker and faced three more set points in the tiebreaker.

“I tried to talk them into winning easy but they wouldn’t listen,” Calabasas Coach Bob Holycross said with a smile.

In the second set, Gross and Wiegler fell behind, 2-0, then used Wiegler’s net play and Gross’ domination from the baseline to rattle off four consecutive games.

Montgomery and Yardi came back to send the set to a tiebreaker, then jumped out to a commanding 5-2 lead.

Gross and Wiegler survived two more set points while taking the last four points.

“We just weren’t as focused on the points that weren’t as crucial,” Gross said.

Stunova wasn’t forced to make quite the same comeback in her final.

Instead she relied on a steady, mistake-free baseline game to keep DeVera away from the net and on the run deep in the corners.

“I played her last summer and I beat her, so I knew how she played,” Stunova said. “She played well but I played well, too.”

After taking a 5-4 lead in the second set, Stunova let two match points slip away, but then took two consecutive games, including a break of DeVera’s serve in the final game without losing a point.

Stunova, after playing a three-hour marathon Thursday in the quarterfinals, and going two hours in two sets against DeVera, was relieved the tournament was over.

“It’s a good thing it didn’t go to a third set,” Stunova said. “I was kind of tired.”