Everyone benefits at Elgin Invite
Elgin Academy’s Charlie Vogel and Elgin’s Reza Khan both left Saturday’s Elgin boys tennis invitational undefeated.
The Maroons won the team title, edging out South Elgin in the final match of the day, but Larkin defeated Elgin 3-2 to open the invite.
Larkin’s No. 2 doubles team of Mark Niemier and Nick Flack were a game away from losing to South Elgin’s Michael Lopez and Muhammad Zamir, but came back to win not only that match but finish the day as one of only two undefeated doubles teams.
if Saturday serves as a preview for the Elgin sectional, which includes all four of these teams, then any one player or team can win.
“There was an emphasis on team,” Maroons’ coach Larry DeHaan said. “Larkin came out and played really well against us. You see these teams, the kids, enjoying playing with each other.”
South Elgin finished second with 8 points, Larkin had 7 and Elgin Academy 5.
The level of balance in talent led to some tightly contested matches in the 7-hour event. DeHaan feels that the length of Saturday’s event will help all of the players get ready for postseason action when they have to play matches all day.
Several successful players were relying on their serve.
“In the past, I’ve been struggling with me serve,” said Khan, who improved his record to 20-1 with 3 victories on Saturday. “I feel like my serve was getting me out to easy points. In practice coach has been helping me a lot with it.”
Khan and Vogel did not face one another on Saturday, with Vigel defeating Elgin’s Mikel Canovas 6-3, 7-6 and Khan downing Owen Rogers 6-1, 6-1 in the No. 2 singles spot.
Vogel also defeated Larkin’s Aaron Timbel 6-0, 6-2 and South Elgin’s Ulises Hernandez 6-2, 6-0.
“My serves were going pretty good,” said Vogel, who improves to 6-1 with his 3 victories on Saturday. “Things have been going pretty well, this is probably one of my best years. Mikel is a good player and we had a really good match.”
The same thing was true in doubles action.
“My serve caught them off guard,” said South Elgin No. 1 doubles’ player Aayush Patel. ”We played well.”
The Royals also felt very comfortable with their doubles performances and it all started with the No. 2 spot. Flack and Niemier were all but out of their match against South Elgin’s Zamir and Lopez 7-9, 7-5, 6-0. The duo also downed Elgin’s Jordan Altieri and Sergio Zuleta 7-5, 6-2 and Elgin Academy’s Martin Diaz de Leon and Colter Kuzal 6-1, 6-4.
“Today was a turning point for us,” Larkin coach Bob Young said. “Until this point, we didn’t have any key wins we could point to. No. 2 doubles really stuck with it and showed some real preservation in that match with South Elgin.”