It has been another banner year for High School North and High School South boys’ tennis teams. The Knights are 10-7, and the Pirates are 13-1 going into the last part of the season.
North placed fifth out of 17 teams in the recent Mercer County Tournament. Second singles player Kristian Dudchak advanced to the semifinals but was ousted by his Pennington opponent. Lev Gedrich and Karan Rajput made it to the first doubles semifinals, while Pratyush Trivedi and Felix Su reached the final round of the first doubles tournament.
Led by Vashishta Kalinabhotla at first singles, the Knights have swept several matches this season. Still, though, they have come up just short in key moments against teams like South, Princeton, and Livingston.
Dudchak, North’s youngest player and only sophomore, has been one of the squad’s strongest starters. The team of nine consists of seven juniors and just one senior, Nihal Narsipur.
The Pirates have seen a more lopsided sort of success. It took nine matches for them to lose even a single set, and they haven’t lost another since. They are Mercer County’s team to beat heading into the end of the season.
South came out on top in the county tournament for the ninth time in ten years. Thomas Weng took the second singles title. John Hu captured the third singles title, and Martin Malik and Dan Vaysburd won at first doubles. Michael Song reached the first singles semifinal.
The Pirates defeated North soundly in both of their matchups this season. The doubles teams are just as strong as the singles players: Malik, Vaysburd, Yuefeng Zhu, and Raymond Fan are among South’s most consistent athletes.
Already notching important victories against North, Princeton, and Wall, the Pirates are in good shape heading into the state tournament. They have handily won all but one match this season, which seems to have become routine for South tennis.
