Top talent advances in Hersey’s Pitchford 32 invite

All the top seeds breezed through a first day of tests at the high profile Pitchford 32 boys tennis invitational Friday to set up what promises to be an exciting fourth round when play resumes at 8 a.m. Saturday at several area venues.

Top singles seeds Jeremy Bush (Stevenson) and Matt Joyce (Hinsdale Central) showed no mercy on their opponents, while Warren senior Kristiyan Trukov (18-2) posted back-to-back straight set victories and next meets 3-4 seed Toby Ma (Deerfield) at host Hersey.

“Kristiyan is finishing up a terrific four-year career at Warren, and he will leave with several school and program records in his name when he does,” said Warren coach Greg Cohen. “This is exactly the type of match that he will be looking forward to playing.”

North Suburban Conference power power Lake Forest had a wonderful opening day, led by top player Peter Tarwid. He stayed alive in the championship bracket along with his teammates at No. 2 singles and both of the Scouts doubles teams.

Stevenson, which fell 5-2 to the Scouts in a dual on Thursday, got a bit of bad news just before the start of the tournament when top doubles team Andrew Komarov-Colin Harvey was forced to take an injury default, taking the 3-4 seed out of action for the weekend.

Despite this lousy news for the Patriots, who were looking to compete with tourney favorite Hinsdale Central and Lake Forest for top team honors, Benjamin Bush remains alive at No. 2 singles along with No. 2 doubles Josh Lieberman/Pawel Jaworski.

Benjamin Bush faces top seed Jack Kasbeer of Deefield at Fremd on Saturday.

Naperville Central’s dynamic duo of Wesley Lo and Sid Swamy had an impressive outing in their first major tournament together, recording straight-set wins against Palatine and 5-8 seed Metamora to earn a spot against 1-2 seed John Zordani-Scott Christian of Lake Forest in a fourth-round match at Buffalo Grove.

“We haven’t spent a lot of time at doubles, but we both know the game really well, and we get along on and off the court, and that’s a great thing to have as a doubles team,” said Swamy, who missed all of last year with a knee injury after qualifying for the state tournament at singles in 2011.

The lone remaining team from the Mid-Suburban League is the 5-8 seed No. 2 doubles team from Barrington, Will Herzog and Akash Khurana. They defeated Chicago Latin and Bloomington to reach the fourth round and will play a 1-2 seed from Hinsdale Central on Saturday at Rolling Meadows.

The quarterfinals and finals will be played at Hersey, while backdraw matches continue at Prospect, Rolling Meadows, Buffalo Grove and Fremd.