Today, the varsity boys’ tennis team had its first away match. It was a practice match against Emerald High in Dublin. Emerald is a brand new school and the campus is absolutely gorgeous. The facility sports eight new lit courts which allowed us to get more matches going right out of the gate. Coach Danielle and her squad were very hospitable hosts. Hopefully, we will play them again in the future.
All six singles and the two higher-seeded doubles matches took to the courts first. #1 Sze Ting Chen finished first dominating freshman Aarav Shah 6-0, 6-0. Next off was the #2 doubles duo Brewer/Ammerman who gave up only three games in a lopsided win. The doubles chemistry these two are showing after only two matches together has been outstanding. #4 Hoeberechts finished next quickly dispatching Kothari 6-2, 6-2. Bora looked happy to see some pace this week – inside joke. At this point, the Dons were up 3-0.
#1 Marshall/Shin started slowly losing the first set 6-1, and though they played a much better second set, they fell 6-4. Their opponents, Jaisankar/Bhatia, are both UTR 8+ players so this was a good showing for Blake and Kyle, though you’ll have a tough time convincing them. #6 Fisher was next to finish and had a decisive 6-1, 6-3 win over Pattabhi. When Cameron came to report the score, he was expressing disappointment in how he played in set two. I had to smile but told him good competitors find a way to win even when they feel like they aren’t playing their best. #2 Shah put up a close fight in set one but Sachdeva took over in set two beating Saaj 7-5, 6-1. At this point, Dons 4, Aerouants 2.
#3 Sze You Chen then completed a straight set win over Sivakumar 7-5, 6-2. Yoyo played a great match and stayed comfortably ahead throughout. He sealed the overall victory for Acalanes with that critical fifth win. #5 Taylor found himself in another long battle – I’m starting to see a pattern here. Sammy’s match was the only one with split sets. Kudos to Sammy for picking his game up after a slow start. He won the second set 6-4 but just couldn’t get ahead of Ram in the deciding super tiebreaker. There were a lot of long points, but Ram took it 10-6. The last match going was #3 doubles where the team of Roberts/Gorham gave up only three games in a solid performance over Reddyganta/Banda.
With this 6-3 win, we improve to 2-0 on the season. Practice matches do count towards our overall win-loss record for the season, which becomes very important in qualifying for the post-season team event. All I can say about the drive to and from Dublin is thank goodness for the express lane. It was another beautiful weather day. The Fresno forecast is a lot of the same, so I’m looking forward to a fun trip. The draw for Fresno came out so we know we play Bakersfield High and Clovis North High on day one. Below is the link to the California Classic if you want to track the Fresno progress. Wish us luck! Thanks again to our family members who made the drive to Dublin. Go Dons! Coach Rick
Results: Acalanes defeated Emerald 6-30
Singles
#1 Sze Ting Chen (A) defeated Aarav Shah (E) 6-0, 6-0
Gursimran Schdeva (E) defeated #2 Saaj Shah (A) 7-5, 6-1
#3 Sze You Chen (A) defeated Pranav Sivakumar (E) 7-5, 6-2
#4 Bora Hoeberechts (A) defeated Dhruv Kothari (E) 6-2, 6-2
Dhruv Ram (E) defeated #5 Sammy Taylor (A) 6-1, 4-6, 10-6
#6 Cameron Fisher (A) defeated Shourya Pattabhi (E) 6-1, 6-3
Doubles
Prithvie Jaisankar/Arnav Bhatia (E) defeated #1 Blake Marshall/Kyle Shin (A) 6-1, 6-4
#2 Rhett Brewer/James Ammerman (A) defeated Rohit Srinivasan/Praharsh Damera (E) 6-3, 6-0
#3 Nolan Roberts/Chris Gorham (A) defeated Arjun Reddyganta/Vishnu Banda (E) 6-1, 6-2
