Boys tennis: Recovery plans in effect after tough first day

Naperville Central's Ryan Roegner was looking forward Thursday to heading to a nearby hotel, jumping in the swimming pool and drinking a lot of fluids with a good dinner.

Glenbard West senior Nate Dell's recovery plan was to include an ice bath, some pasta, a lot of stretching and sleeping in his own bed.

Roegner and Dell are among a healthy contingent of DuPage County boys tennis players who survived three matches Thursday to advance to Friday's fourth round of the state tournament.

Against third-round opponent Andy Graf of Mascoutah, Dell won the first set 6-3 but trailed 5-4 in the second set before taking the final three games to win 7-5 at Fremd High School in Palatine.

"I just started focusing on simple things: my footwork, just bending my legs and playing free coming into the court," Dell said.

Dell, a 9-16 seed who will play next year at Xavier University in Cincinnati, was well-motivated to avoid a third set in the hot, midafternoon sun.

"If I would've went to a third set, that would have been painful," Dell said with relief. "Pretty motivated."

Dell will start Friday by playing Rockford Christian's Brandon Ancona, the second seed, who needed a grueling three sets to finish his third-round match after Dell finished his.

"I know Brandon. We're very good friends," Dell said. "We've played a lot of times. Tournaments, junior tournaments, so it'll be fun, a good match."

Wheaton North freshman Kevin Li won his first two matches before falling to Glenbrook North's Mark Wu, a 5-8 seed.

"It was fun," Li said of his day. "It was my first time at state so I didn't know what to expect. I was happy to win two matches because I didn't really expect anything coming in."

Wu won 6-0, 6-0 and will play Roegner, a 9-16 seed, in the fourth round.

"We'll have a battle out there," Roegner said of playing Wu. "It should be a good match."

Li, a 17-32 seed, will head to the consolation bracket fourth round at Wheeling High School on Friday.

Roegner, a sophomore who transferred to Naperville Central from North Carolina in the off-season, found Illinois tennis to be a very good challenge.

"The high school tennis is tough, for sure," said Roegner, who was pleased to find he was fit for the endurance test that is the state meet. "It was pretty easy down in North Carolina. We had seven divisions instead of one, so it was a little spread out. There's definitely nothing like this, here, with the state tournament playing three (matches) a day within such a small amount of time."

Roegner's teammate Bill Zhang, a 9-16 seed, needed three sets to advance past Chicago Northside's Natan Spears and will play Dunlap's Victor Spolidorio, a 5-8 seed, in the fourth round.

Neuqua Valley's Brett Meyers, a 3-4 seed, will play Joliet Catholic's Jack Geissler, a 9-16 seed, after Meyers' 6-0, 6-0 win against Quinten Nevenhoven of Rockford Auburn.

Naperville North's Jared and Kirk Williams, a 17-32 seed, moved on in doubles play after defeating Alex Totten and Josh Friesen of Normal University 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. They play at Buffalo Grove High School in the fourth round against 5-8 seed Austin Klapman and Nick Marino of Glenbrook North.

Naperville Central's Martin Matov and Ammaar Saeed fell in the third round to Downers Grove South duo Christian San Andres and Zach Wood.