UTICA – Area high school boys tennis stars were a big part of the story during the Section III state qualfiying tournament at Utica Parkway Courts.
In fact, doubles teams from Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt led the way, advancing to the finals and, by doing so, securing berths in this weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
As the top seed, F-M’s duo of Jaden Duggal and Davin Woolridge dropped just one game in each of its first two matches against Michael Clark-Riley Fitzgerald (Auburn) and then in a 6-1, 6-0 win over J-D’s William Parratt and Carson Souser.
The automatic trip to the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens was secured when, in the semifinals, Duggal and Woolridge beat their own teammates, Fergus Brady and Andrew Li, 6-4, 7-6.
Prior to that, Brady and Li had not dropped a set, beating Tyler Kinne and Nolan Robinson (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) 6-1, 6-2 and then Baldwinsville’s team of Connor Tutor and Andrew Jung 6-0, 6-3.
As for the Red Rams, the team of Mark Bratslavsky and Luke Cantone got going with a 6-0, 6-3 win over David Berg and Leo Padula (New Hartford) before topping Hatcher Gutchess and Marcus McLanahan (Skaneateles) 6-0, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
When Bratslavsky and Cantone rallied from an early deficit to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 over Baldwinsville’s Max Funicello and Nick Licciardello, the J-D team’s berth in the state tournament was secure.
Still, there was a final to play on Thursday afternoon, and it was Bratslavsky and Catone who won it, surviving a first-set tie-breaker and going on to beat Duggal and Woolridge 7-6, 6-2.
Christian Brothers Academy had Fabrizio Arezzo and Finn Doyle lose 7-6, 7-5 to Kinne and Robinson in the first round as Parrat and Souser prevailed 6-3, 6-1, over Morrisville-Eaton’s Lacey Priest and Jason Scholtzhauer.
Moving to singles, F-M’s David Fernando had quite a run to the semifinals. First, he survived three sets with Oneida’s Spencer Ingmire 6-0, 2-6, 6-4, then went through three sets in the quarterfinals to get past Liverpool’s Justin Barrett 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.
Then Fernando led New Hatford’s David Fenner in the semifinal and was one set from a state tournament berth before a 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 loss. Then, in Thursday’s third-place match, Fernando could not keep up with Baldwinsville’s Antonio Marsallo, falling in two sets 6-3, 6-3.
Cameron Lukasik beat Noah Ruston (West Genesee) 6-3, 6-1 before Cooperstown’s Gunter Weldon rolled 6-0, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Anthony Pitts had lost to Weldon 6-0, 6-1 a round earlier.
