Plenty of success was found by area high school boys tennis teams as they headed into their respective Section III championship tournaments.
Jamesville-DeWitt earned the team title in Class B, the action getting underway at Utica Parkway, where the Red Rams had finalists in four different divisions – and won two of them.
Peter Hatton did not drop a game in either of his first two matches against Mateo Portella (Central Valley Academy) or Ben Herman (Homer), and it didn’t change much in the final, either, as Hatton routed Mexico’s Joe Ocker 6-0, 6-1.
It was the same in first doubles, with Essex Glowaki and Dhruv Nanavati blanking two foes from Mexico (Jacob Hill and Connor Shaffer) and Westhill (Tom Chaddock and Mike Ferrara), leading to a final with Oneida’s Ajay and Aidan Hicks, where Glowaki and Nanavati again required just two sets to prevail 6-4, 6-2.
Mark Bratslavsky earned his way to the title match in second singles when he survived a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 semifinal against Westhill’s D.J. Caloia. Then, challenging Mexico’s Neil Deloch, Bratslavsky lost in straight sets 7-6, 6-1.
William Guisbond, in third singles, did not lose a set in two early-round matches, beating Daniel Zhang (Cortland ) 6-1, 6-3 and Kyle Hagrman (Westhill) 6-4, 6-2 leading up to the final, and won the first set against Homer’s Adam Brown, too, before Brown rallied to take the match 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Mike Bratslavsky and Aniket Maini lost in the first doubles semifinal in a third-set tie-breaker to Oneida’s Drew Hicks and Seth O’Connell 6-2, 4-6, 7-6, but recovered to finish third
In Class A and B, they had the early rounds on May 18, with the finals taking place two days later.
Christian Brothers Academy moved up to join Fayetteville-Manlius in the Class A sectional tournament that started May 18 on the Hornets’ home courts.
Everyone anticipated a showdown in first doubles between F-M’s Rohan Dhawan and Riley Ma and CBA’s Ben and Dean Vlassis, but the Vlassis brothers prevailed in a walkover.
Meanwhile, in second doubles, F-M’s Ben Farber-McEntee and Andy Sun claimed a 6-2, 6-2 semifinal win over Baldwinsville’s Phil Fiorentino and Connor Tutor, but lost, 6-2, 6-4, to West Genesee’s Stefan Atansov and Max Mekker in the finals. Atanasova and Mekker beat CBA’s Hunter Burton and Max Lewis 6-0, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
The Hornets also had Cameron Lukasik beat Aiden Barbour (Liverpool) 6-3, 6-2 and Leonardo Vona (Baldwinsville) 6-4, 6-3 to reach the third singles final, where he lost, 7-6, 6-4, to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Wyatt Dupell.
F-M’s David Fernando and CBA’s Shivam Nanavati both lost in the first singles quarterfinals, with Nanavati surviving Liverpool’s Aaron Alejo 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 before a 6-1, 6-0 defeat to B’ville’s Antonio Marsallo. Fernando lost 6-3, 7-6 to Auburn’s William Clark.
Manlius-Pebble Hill played in Class C-1 at Liverpool High School, where Dan Braverman lost a third-set tie-breaker in his first singles semifinal with Holland Patent’s Chris Gaige 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, but shut out Jarred Ortlieb (Lowville) 6-0, 6-0 to finish third.
In first doubles Anthony Pitts and Harry Xu finished third after a 6-1, 6-1 win over Lowville’s Joel Cavanaugh and Hugo Zabielowicz. Pitts.Casey Beach and Alex Fung finished fourth in second doubles, while Charlie Mann lost in the second singles quarterfinals.
In Class C-2 at Utica Parkway, Bishop Grimes had Renny Breazeale and Sean Moran reach the semifinal round in second doubles, only to take a 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 defeat to Alexandria Bay’s Matthew Ford and Colby Herrington. Jeff Wang lost in the second singles semifinal to Hamilton’s Aidan Helfant 6-0, 6-1.
