Boys tennis: Burlington Central's Welker in state semifinals
Nicholas Welker's bid to reach the Class 1A boys tennis state tournament final remains on track after the Burlington Central senior outlasted 5-8 seed Ben Mitchell of Chicago Latin in a three-set marathon quarterfinal Friday afternoon at tournament host Hersey High School.
The 3-4 seed Welker will now face top seed Nathan Spear (Chicago Northside), who was third at state a year ago and whose 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Welker last season in the third round ended the BC star's run in the front draw.
"Wow, that was a long match," said Welker, drenched in sweat after needing all of three-plus hours to dispatch Mitchell, whose deliberate style and ability to stay with Welker all throughout the first two sets vanished in the third and final set when Welker opened a 4-1 advantage and never let up on the gas pedal.
"In my first match of the day (against Wheaton Academy's Ty Krill) I felt as though I played so much better than my two matches on Thursday - but I also knew I had to clean some things up in my quarterfinal with Mitchell," began Welker.
"But after getting that first set in a tiebreaker, I thought I had too many unforced errors to force a third set."
Welker would win a 22-ball rally to win a thrilling 9-7 tiebreaker, before conceding the next set in yet another tiebreaker (7-5).
"I made an adjustment in that third set, especially with my serves going from kick serves to a handful of 'change-up' serves - moving him around as much as I could, while playing cleaner and smarter," Welker said.
This tactical approach paid immediate dividends and along with a sharper, snappier serve with plenty of pace on the end of it Welker forced Mitchell to give away points at a rate he was unable to match in his returns, or when he was on serve.
Welker would win a long deuce game to go up 5-1, then popped in a terrific first serve, then went the other way with a nasty forehand return to make it 30-love.
There was no quit in Mitchell, who fought back to make it 40-30, until Welker prevailed to guarantee his top four finish.
"All I want to do is to get home, cool off, eat and rest up for tomorrow," said Welker.
Jacobs senior, Kerwin Chong would provide the Fox Valley area with more good news when the four-time state qualifier won two more games on Saturday, before falling to 9-16 seed Anthony Nguyen (Waubonsie Valley) in his fifth round consolation match in Wheeling.
Chong, who will play next fall at Roosevelt University, went 2-1 on the day, and 4-2 overall to run his final regular season record to 34-7, two years after going 40-4 with his older brother Kendrick when the two collected three wins in Kendrick's fourth and final state appearance.
"I never thought once about this being my last state tournament, or the last time that I'll play for Jacobs. It's been an amazing time for me, and one that I'll always remember because it's been so much fun playing for coach (Jon) Betts and the program," said Kerwin Chong.
St. Charles North, the only other remaining team from the Fox Valley area left standing, had its season come to an end in Mt. Prospect when Ajay Gustafson and Conor Bajuk lost their third round consolation match to Parker Honeggar-Josh Joseph of Moline, 6-3, 6-1.