Area high school boys tennis teams would find success in three of the four Section III tournaments, with Fayetteville-Manlius taking three of the five titles in a Class A tournament that also included East Syracuse Minoa.
With two different comebacks, the Hornets’ Dilan Judge won in third singles. In the semifinals, Judge rallied past Baldwinsville’s Nick Licciardello 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, and in the final Judge overcame a rough start against Fulton’s Charles Hyland to prevail 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Back in the quarterfinals, Hyland had topped ESM’s Tom Kipping 6-4, 6-2, this after Kipping survived a 6-3, 6-3 decision over Whitesboro’s Justin Jones.
In first doubles, F-M’s Taran Judge and Riley Ma swept ESM’s Ben Houseman and Bryant Pham after that pair had beaten Oswego’s Nick Holland and Matt Mace 7-6, 7-6. Giving up just one game in six sets, Judge and Ma shut out West Genesee’s Matt Manarra and James Plunkett 6-0, 6-0 in the finals.
The second doubles title went to the Hornets’ Joel Farella and Jeremy Zhang, who lost just two games in their first two matches on the way to the final, where they beat WG’s Stefan Atanasov and John Northrop 6-2, 6-1.
Earlier in the tournament, Atanasov and Northrop beat ESM’s David Demazure and Dan Rivers 6-3, 6-0 after Demazure and Rivers beat Charlie Gilroy and David Salce (Rome Free Academy) 6-1, 6-1.
Where F-M didn’t win was in first or second singles. Rohan Dhawan ran into Auburn’s Scott Minnoe in the semifinals and lost, 6-0, 6-0, as Minnoe went on to win the title and Dhawan beat Fulton’s Eric Shear 6-2, 6-1 for third place.
Meanwhile, in second singles, Michael Miller, as the top seed, ran into Fulton’s Ryan Lalik in the semifinals and got beat 6-3, 6-0, as Lalik would win the title and Miller bounced back to beat Baldwinsville’s Eric Smith 6-3, 6-0 for third place after Smith beat ESM’s Kelvin Cheng in the quarterfinals.
The Class B sectional tournament at Utica Parkway Courts had Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt involved, and each of them emerging with wins.
CBA’s Dean Vlassis didn’t lose a game in first singles against Seth Landers (Carthage) or Joe Ocker (Mexico) before the finals, while J-D’s Peter Hatton handled Ben Herman (Homer) and John-Robert Corasaniti (New Hartford) to earn a showdown with Vlassis, who bent a bit, but still beat Hatton 6-3, 6-1.
In second singles, Ben Vlassis had to beat J-D’s Will Guisbond 6-0, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, but then topped Seth O’Connell (Oneida) by those same scores to reach the final against Mexico’s John Ocker, where Vlassis rolled to a 6-0, 6-2 victory.
And in third singles, Shivam Nanavati rolled past everyone, including a semifinal where he took out J-D’s Aniket Maini 6-3, 6-1. The final, against Westhill’s David Bleskoski, also went just two sets as Nanavati won 6-1, 6-4.
In first doubles, J-D’s Essex Glowaki and Drhun Nanavati beat Westhill’s Tom Chaddock and Ryan Rolince 7-5, 6-0 to reach the title match against Oneida’s Aidan and Ajay Hicks, where after dropping a first-set tie-breaker Glowaki and Nanavati rallied to win 6-7, 6-2, 6-2.
J-D’s second doubles team of Somil Aggarwal and Mark Bratslavsky got past CBA’s Hunter Burton and Max Lewis 6-4, 6-4, before surviving Kai Hokanson and Dan Ruggiero (Cortland) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Once past that point, Aggarwal and Bratslavsky handled the final, beating Westhill’s Conor Mahoney and Nick Sauro 6-3, 7-6.
In Class C-1 at SUNY-Cortland, Manlius-Pebble Hill had, in third singles, Dan Mezzalingua finishing second. Mezzalingua beat Katherine Trossett (Cooperstown) 6-4, 6-0 and Luke Stayton (Sauquoit Valley) 6-2, 6-3 to get to the final against Skaneateles’ Jack Belinski, where in two close sets Mezzalingua lost 6-4, 7-5.
Up in first singles, Dan Braverman beat Duncan Raddant (Skaneateles) 6-0, 6-0 and then, against Sauquoit’s Chris Mazza in the semifinals, lost 6-3, 6-1, ultimately finishing fourth.
Charlie Mann, in second singles, beat Nic Sawler (Lowville) 6-1, 6-1, but lost to Cooperstown’s John Kelley 6-4, 6-1 before recovering to take third place with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Skaneateles’ Dan Judge.
In first doubles in C-1, MPH’s Camden Ciotoli and Keerthi Martyn lost in the semifinals after a third-set tie-breaker helped them survive Joe Clark and Brad Litz (Mount Markham) 6-3, 2-6, 7-6. Then Ciotoli and Martin finished third after another three-set battle where they beat Nate Fouts and Andrew Neumann (Skaneateles) in another third-set tie-breaker 6-3, 2-6, 7-6.
J.J. Braverman and Jeff Bush were one game from victory, only to take a 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 defeat to Canastota’s Ethan DeBrucque and Matt McDermott.
In the Class C-2 sectional tournament, Bishop Grimes had Jeff Wang take a 6-0, 6-2 singles defeat to Kyle Gionet (Alexandria Bay), while Zed Weigand fell to Alex Bay’s Giovanni Ortiz 6-1, 6-2 in second singles.
In third singles, Sean Moran fell to another Alex Bay player as Mason Gorman prevailed 6-2, 6-1. Andrew Coleman and Kelly Hu lose in the first doubles quarterfinals.
