Boys tennis: Barrington more than measures up at Fremd
Barrington's boys tennis team cleared one of its biggest hurdles in the Mid-Suburban West on Thursday afternoon by defeating host Fremd 7-0.
The Broncos (5-0-0, 1-0-0) were on target at singles, winning all three flights in straight sets. That includes No. 1, where sophomore Bradley Yu defeated Casey Hishinuma 6-0, 6-1 in just over an hour to get the visitors off and running.
"It feels good to finally play in decent weather," said Yu, who will be away this weekend at a USTA tournament in Toledo, Ohio, and not with his club when it plays at the high-profile Jay Kramer Invite at Hinsdale Central.
"Bradley was very good today - his serve was on and he closed out points quickly against a quality freshman player in Hishinuma," said Barrington coach John Roncone. "Dylan (Er) was dynamic for the first one-and one-half sets, then let his opponent (Ryan Zheng) back in but got himself together to finish with a win to really get us going at the top two spots in our lineup."
Freshman Ammar Wazir went 6-0, 6-0 in his contest at No. 3 singles to pave the way for a sweep at doubles by the Broncos.
Roncone was proud of the effort from his Nos. 1 and 2 doubles teams: Matt D'Amore/Aryan Sharma, as well as Kyle Shuff/Tim Lowe, who found their counterparts from Fremd (4-2-0, 0-1-0) ready to provide stern tests.
"The focus on key points in both of their matches was were it needed to be, because Matt (Duncan, Fremd's head coach) has two good teams himself, so we couldn't let down at any time," Roncone said.
Fremd's youth is a challenge Duncan welcomes.
"We're really young at singles, starting two freshmen and one sophomore," he said. "Plus we start a freshmen at No. 1 dubs, so we're going to learn on the fly at times. But we'll be better for it this year, and beyond.
"John does such a great job with his players, and at doubles his guys always crash the net so well to apply a lot of pressure. So we have to continue to work on that part of our game."
The Broncos won in straight sets at Nos. 1, 2 and 4 doubles (Emre Guceli/Brent Li) while their No. 3 team of Suven Sinha/Nick Edels had to fight off a strong challenge from the Vikings' Nihar Simhadai/Andrew Elliott in a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-4 outcome.
"I know a 7-0 loss doesn't look good in print, but to be honest, I felt that our guys fought hard, played some great points and games along the way, and held their own against maybe the best team in our conference," said Duncan.
Roncone and his club are eager to see where they stand against some of the best in the state on Saturday in Hinsdale. The field features perhaps the two favorites in the race for a state title in New Trier and the host Red Devils.
"I know the guys are looking forward to this weekend, as it will be their first big test of the season, with the Pitchford 32 coming up the following weekend," said Roncone. "We will be able to measure ourselves against all sorts of talent and abilities, then get ourselves ready for a busy and important week."