Melissa Tafoya

Melissa L. Tafoya is certified by the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) and the

Professional Tennis Registry (PTR).  Through PTR, Melissa has speciality certifications in Adult Tennis Development, Senior Tennis Development, 10 & Under Tennis Development, 11-17 Tennis Development, Junior High Performance

Development and Wheelchair Tennis. Every year Melissa attends continuing education courses at USPTA and PTR conventions. Melissa has thirty years of combined experience as a player and a coach. In February of 2017, Melissa was very honored to be Awarded the PTR Arizona Professional Member of the Year Award. She accepted the award from the Professional Tennis Registry CEO Dan Santorum in Hilton Head, South Carolina. In May of 2017, Melissa was very honored to be accepted into the PTR. She was honored to be selected to the Faculty of the 2017 United States Tennis Congress. In November of 2017, Melissa received her 5th certification from PTR – by completing all 5 PTR certifications, she is in the top 1% of all PTR certified professionals world wide. Melissa was born in Flagstaff, Arizona and grew up in Mesa. She was a ranked competitive high performance junior player who received her training from Santa Barbara, California. Melissa trained under world class tennis player and coach Michael Koury. During those competitive years she won many USTA junior and adult tournaments throughout the United States. As a high school player, Melissa set several records at Westwood High School in Mesa and played the number one varsity singles and doubles positions for all four years. Her senior year, Melissa won the Mesa Tribune Athlete of the Year Award as well as the prestigious Mutt Ford Memorial Athlete of the Year Award. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Northern Arizona University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. She is a graduate of Valley Leadership and was a facilitator for high school students in the Revlon Career Options in Hispanic Business Program at ASU. Melissa also completed professional certification in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) from Consulting Psychologists Press at Arizona State University. Before Melissa started her own business as a tennis professional, she worked for 10 years in government relations as a lobbyist in both Arizona and Washington D.C.