It was a tennis-packed weekend in West Hartford as Boys Varsity Tennis competed in the Kingswood Invitational Tennis Tournament at Kingswood Oxford on April 6 and 7. Though the format was four individual singles brackets and two doubles draws, each match contributed to an overall team score- to which Deerfield tied for third place among 8 teams.
In the #1 Singles bracket, senior and captain Alfi Auersperg defeated Clay Glovier (Hotchkiss) 6-4, 6-3. He then lost to eventual champion Matt Kandel (Groton) in a hard fought, hard-hitting 6-2, 6-3 battle. Auersperg finished in third place by defeating Luke Riemann (Kingswood Oxford) 8-6. The whole tournament was in awe of Auersperg’s serve this weekend!
Junior Deepak Pathapati competed in the #2 Singles bracket and won his first match easily against Gabriel Santos (Hall) 6-1, 6-0. Despite some wicked inside out forehands he then fell to eventual champion Lex Decker (Lawrenceville) 6-3, 6-2. In the playoff for third and fourth place Pathapati rallied from 0-6 back to 6-6 only to fall 8-6 to Parth Mody (Choate).
Deerfield sophomore Achille Sarachek placed fifth in his #3 Singles bracket. Though he lost a tough first round match to human backboard Ethan Na (KO), Sarachek rallied back by winning his next two contests 8-4 (versus Julian Schirnding-Yach of Choate) and 8-5 (against Adam Sonntag of KO).
Adrian Yao lost in the finals of the #4 Singles draw and played two of the tightest, most entertaining matches of the event! On Saturday, Yao won his first match 7-5, 6-2 against Louis Sardain of Lawrenceville. He then came from behind to defeat Jack Lochheim (Hotchkiss) 2-6, 6-4, 10-8 in the last match of the day. In the finals on Sunday Yao fought so hard but came up just a bit short against Max-William Kanz of KO, 6-2, 7-6 (7).
In doubles, Auersperg/Pathapati played three tight matches. Their excellent serving and returning won them two of those conquests, defeating Mody/Coletti (Choate) 2-6, 6-2, 10-6 and Riemann/Sonntag (KO) 9-8 (2). Though the excellent KO team of Kandel/Trigg beat them 6-4, 6-2 in the semi-finals, the match was exciting and closer than the score shows.
Sarachek/Yao lost a nail-biter in their first round match to Na/McCosgo of KO 5-7, 6-3, 10-5. They then breezed past Taylor/Maturana (Hall) 8-0 but fell to Cai/Sardain (Lawrenceville) 8-6 in the consolation finals.
As a whole the Deerfield team got better with each match they played and will take this match play experience with them into the rest of the season. Next up is another trip tp Kingswood Oxford on Wednesday, April 10 at 4pm.