Haley Giavara won the Master’U BNP Paribas championship with the U.S. in December in France.
College Tennis Has Opened Up Two Different Career Paths For Cal Star Haley Giavara
This feature originally appeared in the 2023 Spring edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.
Haley Giavara has nurtured two future careers by going to college.
A fierce competitor on the California women’s tennis team, the San Diego product has made a steady climb toward her goal of becoming a full-time professional player.
A senior, Giavara burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2019-20, when she earned a No. 15 ITA singles ranking and her first singles All-America honor in the pandemic-scuttled season. Giavara was ranked 27th as a sophomore, when she led Cal to the NCAA round of 16 and competed in both the NCAA singles and doubles tournaments. She finished with a No. 36 singles ranking as a junior, when she led Cal to another NCAA round of 16 and reached the NCAA singles round of 16 to earn her second All-America honor.
Giavara is equally committed in the classroom. A member of the 2022 Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll, she is double-majoring in legal studies and sociology with an eye toward working in sports law one day.
“It’s a good ability to be able to read contracts and know what’s going on legally, if I’m playing as a pro, and it’s also a good avenue to pursue after playing,” she said. “I have a passion for it. I would consider representing other athletes.”
Neither potential career might have emerged had she eschewed the college route.
“It’s really interesting right now – there are a lot of successful pro players who’ve played in college,” Giavara said. “That pathway is really opening up from college tennis to pro tennis. Before it was a known fact that if you play college tennis, your pro ranking would suffer. But now that’s not necessarily…
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