Boys tennis secures win against Walter Johnson

BLAZER COURTS, April 9 -

The boys' tennis team snatched a clean win from divisional opponent Walter Johnson yesterday, with a final score of 5-2.

Blair's singles teams cleaned up, with first singles player and captain senior Michael Hsu landing a 6-0, 6-0 double bagel in less than 40 minutes. Walter Johnson's Jamie Spiez hit a few strong deep shots, but his strategy was no match for Hsu's strong placement game.

"I felt very energetic today," said Hsu, who stayed focused throughout the match, determined to bounce back after falling to Churchill last week.

The next two Blazers singles players, sophomore Dukyoung Park and freshman Ajay Kannan also crushed their opponents easily, with final scores of 6-2, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-1 respectively. Fourth singles player junior Charles Kong struggled a little toward the beginning of the match but eventually minimized his unforced errors and finished with a 6-3, 6-2 victory.

"I guess I was sort of nervous, but I pulled through," said Kong, who showed improvement in his serve, with far fewer double faults than last week.

Blair's double players, who all have considerably less competitive matchplay experience than the singles players, had a harder time against their WJ counterparts. First to finish among the doubles matches were senior Caleb Fan, a fourth alternate subbing in for junior Henry Zhang and junior Kerry Chang. Fan and Chang had never played before together and lost due in part to coordination problems.

"We should have communicated better," said Chang, recalling one point where both boys went for the ball and their rackets collided. Because they had never worked on doubles strategies together before, Fan and Chang played a conservative game, while Walter Johnson's Ting Chen and Chi Zhang aggressively moved up to the net, defeating the Blazers 6-2, 6-4.

Blair's third doubles also played a close game but landed a 7-5, 6-3 win. Down 3-5 in the first set, sophomore Rohan Bhale and freshman Gill Guo relaxed and started taking more risks, assuming they would have to take the match to three sets. The aggressive play ended up working in their favor, and their down-the-middle winners won them the next four games in a row. Their confidence boosted, Bhale and Guo continued to play aggressively in the second set to take the game for Blair.

Last to finish was the first doubles team, junior Samir Chainani and senior Nitin Sukumar, who also played a conservative game but were ultimately defeated by their own unforced errors. Walter Johnson's Max Lowenthal and Eric Duong made more unforced errors than the Blazers in the first set, but they gained a lead as Chainani and Sukumar began hitting volleys in the net and failing to hold serve. The Blazers continued fighting even after losing the second set, playing long and unpredictable points, but they were ultimately defeated 3-6, 6-0, and 6-3.

Coach David Ngbea was pleased with the divisional win but emphasized that the team needs to continue working on aggressive shots. "Our volleys and our serves are problematic," he said. The boys plan to practice these shots before an important upcoming divisional match against Wootton on Wednesday.

Boys' tennis takes on Whitman at home on April 14 at 3:30 p.m.