New mindset a winner for Naperville North’s Zhang
For Gordon Zhang it was just a case of setting himself free to be Gordon Zhang.
After a long talk with Huskies coach Heather Henricksen on Friday in which she encouraged Zhang to just loosen up and use his many tennis gifts, the Naperville North senior went out and won the first-singles title at the Huskies Invitational on Saturday.
Neuqua Valley won the team championship with 44 points as all six Wildcats entries advanced to the finals. Lyons Twp. was second with 39 and Naperville North was third with 31.
“After he lost Friday night to Sam Bloom of Hinsdale Central,” Henricksen said, “I told Gordon that he has to trust his game more. He has to try different things and be less predictable in tough matches. He has to go with his strengths like using the drop shot, serve and volley and coming in off service returns.”
Zhang won his first match in the tournament 6-0, 6-0, and then he was trailing 3-2 in the first set of the semifinals to Matt Papke of Rockford Guilford when he began to lecture himself.
“I said, ‘Gordon, if you keep playing like this you might win, but you’re not going to improve your game,’” Zhang said.
And that little reminder was liberating for the three-time state qualifier.
“At that point he won two games,” Henricksen said. “And that got him going. He went on to win the set and played out of his mind to win the second set 6-0.”
Zhang continued to use his variety of weapons as he took the first set from Michael Baiocchi of Neuqua Valley, who was obviously in pain from an abdominal strain and had to retire before the second set.
Zhang was disappointed for Baiocchi, a good friend and worthy opponent and also because he had been looking forward to playing the Neuqua senior in a rematch after their three-hour marathon that Zhang had won just three nights before in a dual meet.
“Gordon can move his serve around and he can move you around with groundstrokes,” Baiocchi said. “He has no weaknesses, and it’s hard to work around that. He’s attacking more, serving better and moving a lot better.”
Hearing that is music to Henricksen’s ears.
“Gordon was coming on strong in the semifinals and finals,” Henricksen said. “He’s turning into a man on the court. He really wants it. But he has to trust himself. He may be a consistent, steady player, but he still doesn’t realize how good he is. When he hits big like he did today, he’s something else.”
In winning the title Neuqua Valley won championships in two flights as Naveen Krishnan finished first at third singles and the recently put together team of Jeff Ohmer and Amit Iyer won third doubles.
“Amit has never played doubles,” said Neuqua Valley coach Trudy Bennorth. “But Jeff is showing him the ropes and Amit is getting stronger and stronger.”
Waubonsie Valley’s Abhi Singh and Deep Chatterjee defeated Neuqua’s Jack Warning and Andi Kosova at first doubles, and Rockford Guilford’s Jack Alexander and Andrew Stovall topped Neuqua’s Kenneth Hoffman and Nick Wright at second doubles.
The Wildcats’ Tim Worley advanced to the second-singles finals before losing to Lyons Twp.’s Connor Wasz.
“I’m really happy with a victory in a tournament that had so many strong teams,” Bennorth said. “Everybody made it to the finals and we had some really good matches. But there’s still a lot of work to do.”