Boys state tennis: Streamwood’s Veltkamp impresses in reaching quarterfinals; Hinsdale Central takes Day One lead over Conant

Last year at this time, Mathieu Veltkamp could have sulked, could have grounded his tennis rackets, could have thought, “Maybe I should give underwater hockey a try.”

The Streamwood tennis ace did none of the above after going 1-2 in singles in his first Class 2A boys tennis state tournament last spring, including a gut-wrenching 6-7 (4), 6-2 (10-5) first-round loss to 5-8 seed Nathan Hernandez of Hinsdale Central.

“Up one set and an early service break in the second set,” Veltkamp, now a sophomore, recalled at Thursday’s 2A state meet at Barrington.

“Missed opportunity,” the Sabre added.

In a Round of 16 match in summery conditions, Veltkamp, seeded 5-8, looked across the net and saw red again.

Hinsdale Central red.

This time it was Red Devils junior Barry Zhu, a 9-16 seed.

Veltkamp, a hard-hitting baseliner with a sneaky-fast serve, missed few shots in the first set, skipping to a 6-1 decision. He then found himself down 3-0 in the second set.

“At that point all I’m thinking is, ‘Get the next point because it’s a brand-new one, a chance to reset,’” said Veltkamp.

It was 3-3 in no time before Zhu — blessed with the abilities to execute a heavy topspin shot one minute and a smooth slice the next — held serve. Veltkamp held, knotting it at 4, and then went up 5-4 when he sprinted to answer a Zhu drop shot with a down-the-line forehand winner.

The Sabre’s fan base erupted.

“I normally don’t like playing in front of a big crowd,” Veltkamp said. “But today I heard the energy, felt it, and it helped me.”

Veltkamp held serve at love, completing his impressive 6-1, 6-4 win.

“Mathieu battled, playing with grit and passion,” said Streamwood coach Mack Mowen. “His tennis IQ, I’m telling you, is off the charts, and his entire family — they all play tennis — gets behind him at every match.”

Mathieu has three older brothers: Christopher, Alex and Nicolas.

“Mathieu is mentally stronger this year and isn’t afraid of big moments in matches,” Christopher Veltkamp said. “He put his head down and went to work after state last year. Late nights working on his game took time away from his friends.”

Veltkamp (31-1) faces Fremd senior and 3-4 seed Shashwat Srivatsa in a 9 a.m. quarterfinal Friday at Palatine. A Veltkamp victory would avenge his lone loss in 2025.

Conant’s sophomore-laden crew earned a pair of state quarterfinal berths and just missed a third Thursday as it totaled 16 points to trail only Hinsdale Central (22) in the team standings.

“Great day for the Cougars,” said Conant coach Matt Marks after his three entrants went a combined 8-1. “Our guys played loose and were eager to get after it.”

Sophomore Kabir Motwani won each of his three matches in straight sets; sophomores Austin Wu/Maximus Rysz overcame a 5-3 third-set deficit to reach a doubles quarterfinal with an oscillating 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5) defeat of Oak Park-River Forest’s Eli Stein and Alex Dolipschi; and Cougars sophomores Nathan Desai/Haruki Watanabe competed valiantly in a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 setback to HC’s Winston Stangle/Bodie Teuscher.

“We’re going to learn from our mistakes and play with a purpose in our quarterfinal (vs. Glenbrook South’s Bryce Abban/David Kaminski),” said Rysz.

Hersey went 6-for-6 with its pair of entrants and sits in a tie for sixth place (12 points) with Fremd in the team standings. Top-seeded Matthew Sikorski won a trio of straight-setters, as did the Huskies doubles team of Jakub Pasielak/Andrew Weber.

Three-time reigning state champion Hinsdale Central advanced Hernandez, Stangle/Teuscher and top-seeded Nicholas Marringa/Kyle McCain to final-eight lines.

“The hard work paid off,” Red Devils coach Pete Alex said, alluding to his team’s high state seeds. “They considered the offseason important and poured their hearts into improving their games.”

Barrington, Waubonsie Valley and Glenbrook South are tied for third at the three-day tourney with 13 points apiece.

Barrington singles qualifiers Will Delach, a sophomore and 5-8 seed, and Hadi Dossani, a junior, each won twice. Delach, who trained for four weeks on red clay at a camp in Spain last summer, relied on punishing groundies to solve Oswego East’s Pranav Kannan 6-1, 7-5 in a second-round match but fell to Loyola Academy’s PJ Barry 6-3, 6-2 in the Round of the 16. Broncos Avar Anand/Shian Mittal went 3-1 and will play a fourth-round consolation doubles match Friday morning.

Waubonsie Valley’s Hector Diaz and Samayan Tayal each survived two elimination singles matches in the back draw Friday.

York’s Nate Yu/Brennen Maxeiner upset 5-8 seed Blake Drexler/Ryan Chernawsky of Deerfield 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the third round; Fremd’s Ved Mistry/Stanley Zeng split two matches in the front draw; and Stevenson’s Jaden Dai, seeded second, lost 6-3, 6-4 to 9-16 seed Marko McRae of Lane.

Class 1A: Chicago University (16) sits in first place in the 1A state tourney after day one, ahead of Prairie Ridge (15) and Dunlap (14).

Metamora is fourth (12), followed by Hinsdale South (10), Urbana University (10), Timothy Christian (9), Mascoutah (9), Alleman (9) and Wauconda (9).

Grayslake Central’s Samay Patel, Marmion Academy’s Benedict (the No. 2 seed), Hinsdale South’s Zeke Bisharat, Timothy Christian’s Hudson Tseng and St. Francis’ Umar Bajwa are among the singles quarterfinalists.

Graft, last year’s state runner-up in singles, was dominant on Thursday, losing only 1 game in three matches.

Wauconda seniors Sean Lenhart/Marshawn Gallego won thrice and the 5-8 seed will face Dunlap’s Alex Fie/Ethan Mcraven in a state doubles quarterfinal at Hersey at 9 a.m. Friday.