Burke, Prospect edge Conant

Prospect freshman Carson Burke recorded his first Mid-Suburban League victory, and his teammates at No. 1 doubles — Matt Werderitch and Mike Hamman — won their match in straight sets to help the visiting Knights defeat Conant 4-3 in a nonconference dual Tuesday afternoon in Hoffman Estates.

The Knights’ senior-laden lineup split its flights at doubles, with their No. 2 team of Eric Krakowiak and Mike Schultz holding off the duo of Joe Chi and Juki Hayashi 6-3, 7-6.

Prospect went 2-1 at singles, with Burke defeating veteran Takuma Ito 6-3, 6-4, and Pat Sitko at No. 3 earning a straight-sets victory against Konei Ishii to give the Knights their first conference win of the season.

“It was a good victory for us today, especially after watching Carson getting a solid win against a very good opponent (Ito), - and to see our guys at one-dubs continue to improve, as they also beat a pretty tough opponent from Conant,” said Prospect coach Rick Huffman. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re definitely making progress each time we go out and compete.”

Burke, who had a tough go of it last weekend at the Hersey Invite, bounced back under sunny skies on the Cougars’ courts against Ito, a returning state qualifier at doubles, with a nice finish in the first set. First he broke Ito to go up 4-3, then finished strong by moving his opponent back and forth in the final two games of the set while staying at the baseline and keeping the points alive, many of them long rallies, before closing out the point.

“I began to notice that (Ito) was hitting a little long on his forehand return, so I just kept trying to keep the ball in play, and keeping him back at the same time,” said Burke, who despite going 0-3 on Saturday played his best against three-time state qualifier Chris Federeghi of Cary-Grove to end his tournament on a high note.

Burke appeared to be well on his way to an easy second set victory as he built a 3-0 lead. But Ito fought back, making it 5-4 before finally falling after gettnig back to deuce.

“(Taki) has had a bit of a rough start this season, but he’s also had four quality opponents, including (Michael) Sellito of Glenbrook South and Federeghi, but he’ll get things figured out soon enough, and get back to where he wants to be,” said Conant coach Amar Patel, who has had to move a few of his players around due to a persistent ankle injury to his No. 2 at singles, Spencer Fang.

“The injury to Spencer has led to us finding a No. 3 (Hersh Chaudhary) when he returns,” said Patel, “so that will help us overall, and (then) we can hopefully get the rest of our lineup settled at that time.”

Chaudhary came back from a first-set loss to defeat John Behnke in 3 sets (6-7, 6-4, 7-5) to give the Cougars its lone win at singles.

“I was talking to Rick beforehand, and it looked like (Behnke) had beaten some quality opponents, so Hersh’s win was a good one for him,” Patel said.

Werderich and Hamman, who drew praise from Huffman after their strong performance against Fremd last weekend, turned in a wonderful effort against team Itskovich to give the Knights’ pair a win in less than an hour.

The Knights were in control in their first set after breaking Peter Itskovich to go up 5-3, then finishing off their counterparts after a long, deuce-filled game No. 10 went in their favor.

It was more of the same in the second set when the visitors broke Eugene Itskovich to build a 5-2 cushion, but soon it was 5-4, with Werderitch serving for the match.

“I had a couple of poor service games in that second set to help let (Conant) back into the match,” said Hamman, whose partner admitted to a few missed volleys which contributed to the Cougars’ comeback.

Hamman handcuffed Peter Itskovich at the net to bring the final game of the day to deuce. Moments later, Hamman split the duo with a nice return from in close to get them 1 point away from a win.

“We’ve been friends for a long time, and we played a lot in the off-season, so we know each other very well and I think it’s going to help us get better the more that we play together this season,” said Werderitch.

Patel was impressed with his No. 2 team of Insu Park and Connor Sacks, who won with ease in straight sets. He was also pleased with his No. 4 pair of PK Krol and Juji Takaba, who needed 3 sets before closing out Blake Heyde and Mike Ryndak 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Sacks, who is the younger brother of former state qualifier Brett Sacks, teamed up with Park to win in straight sets at the Wheaton North Quad last weekend against the host Falcons before moving over to singles to grab a win against Wheaton Academy.

“We’ll have a real test this weekend when we play at the Latin Invite on the north side of the city, but it will be good for all of our guys to see where they are all at,” said Patel of the annual tournament which features the defending state champions from New Trier and a potential matchup of defending state singles champ Robert Stineman against a superb three-time state qualifier from Latin, Ben Quazzo.