When, at last, a moment of dry weather presented itself early last week, some of the area’s boys tennis teams were able to fit in some matches to prevent too much of a late-season backup.
Christian Brothers Academy and Manlius-Pebble Hill would open the season against each other, and the Brothers got off to the quick start, earning all of the singles points in a 4-1 victory over the Trojans.
In fact, none of those singles matches was close. Ben Vlassis had a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Charlie Mann as Dean Vlassis got past Dan Braverman 6-1, 6-1. Though he played a bit longer, Shivam Nanavati handled Dan Mezzalingua 6-2, 6-0.
MPH’s point came from first doubles, where the duo of Cam Ciotoli and Keerthi Martyn rolled past Ayo Osuntola and William Holstein 6-2, 6-0. In the other match, Max Lewis and Hunter Nurton got past J.J. Braverman and Matt Roberson 6-4, 6-4.
Two days later, MPH lost, 4-1, to Westhill, with Dan Braverman preventing the shutout as he routed Jackson Bradley 6-1, 6-1. The Warriors won all of the other matches in two sets, including a singles battle where Mezzalingua fell to David Bleskoski 6-3, 6-4.
East Syracuse Minoa, who lost its opener 4-3 to Oswego on April 2, would play again a week later, against Cortland, and notch a couple of points, but still fall 5-2 to the Purple Tigers.
The four singles matches were split as the Spartans’ John Kipping won, 6-4, 6-0, over Justin Soler and Ben Houseman handled David Parker 6-2, 6-0. Kelvin Cheng lost to Nick Djafari 7-5, 6-0 and Bryant Pham fell to Grayson Jones 6-2, 6-2.
Of the three doubles matches, ESM pushed one of them to three sets, only to see Justin Cesarini and Jake Harrig take a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 loss to Dan Ruggiero and Kai Hokanson. The teams of Dan Rivers-Jason Schad and David Demazure-Jack Satterly lost in two sets.
But then the Spartans ran into Jamesville-DeWitt on Wednesday, and did not even get on the board, shut out 7-0 by the Red Rams.
Schad got into a three-set singles battle with Mark Bratslavsky, but Bratslavsky rallied to win 5-7, 6-1, 10-7. Somil Aggarwal beat Pham 6-0, 6-3, with Eric Benaroch topping Kipping 6-2, 6-1 and William Guisbond getting past Rivers 6-2, 6-0.
Another three-set match took place in doubles, where J-D’s Aniket Maini and Wesley Sharlow got a 6-4, 5-7, 10-6 victory over Cesarini and Harrig. The teams of Essex Glowaki-Druv Nanavati and Lear Wang-Sam Fechtner each won in two sets.
A busy Friday saw J-D pull out a 4-3 decision over Cortland, all from singles points. Hatton handled Grayson Jones 6-1, 6-0, with Nanavati topping Brain Ngo 6-0, 6-1 as Glowaki routed Nick Djafari 6-0, 6-1 and Aggarwal shut out Connor Holl 6-0, 6-0.
MPH swept Phoenix 5-0, where Mezzalingua had the closest singles match, beating Josh Van Gorder 6-3, 6-1 as Mann and Dan Braverman each won twin 6-1, 6-0 decisions over, respectively, David Burgess and Evan Baldini.
ESM, meanwhile, lost a 6-1 decision to Auburn, spared from the shutout when Tom Kipping and David Griffith, in doubles, handled Jacob Lupo and Connor Cuthbert 7-5, 6-0. Rivers fell to Jacob Wansor 6-2, 6-3 and Schad lost, 6-3, 6-2, to Nathan Wawro in singles play.
Bishop Grimes took a 5-0 defeat to Westhill on Friday, followed by a Saturday match where CBA was challenged by Lansing (Section IV) and still prevailed 3-2.
