Boys tennis: Naperville Central wins sectional easily

With the defending state champion on top of its game, there was little doubt that Naperville Central would claim the Class 2A tennis sectional crown Saturday at Naperville North.

The only real suspense was whether every Redhawks entrant would reach the finals. Naperville Central's two doubles teams met in the championship, and top-seeded singles all-stater Ryan Roegner breezed into the championship match.

That left only freshman singles standout Naveen Ramakrishnan, who reached the semifinals against Waubonsie Valley senior Anthony Nguyen. The Redhawks rookie won a pair of one-sided matches to reach the semis and secure a berth to next week's state tournament, and then came oh-so-close to knocking off the Warriors' winningest player of all time.

Ramakrishnan (27-10) matched Nguyen stroke for stroke as the players embarked on a long, tight match that featured numerous impressive rallies. Each player won a set by the score of 7-5 and the Redhawks newcomer eventually built a 5-3 lead in the third set before the veteran Nguyen took the final four games and the set.

"I thought I played pretty well. You know Anthony's a good player and I knew going into it that it was going to be a long match," said Ramakrishnan, whose team scored 18 points to easily hold off team runner-up Neuqua Valley (9 points). "When it came close he just powered through the points. We both got tired and we both withdrew (from the next round). We both qualified so it was just a match to have fun with and I think we both showed everyone that we can play some good tennis."

With each player having qualified for state and extending themselves in the semis while battling cramping, it turned out their days were done following the thrilling match. Nguyen, a multiple state qualifier prior to this season, warmed up for an attempt to take on the Redhawks' top-seeded Roegner in the finals, but he injury defaulted before the match got underway.

That gave Roegner, who finished third for the state champs in 2017, his third sectional title in three years. When Ramakrishnan defaulted in the third-place match, that meant Neuqua Valley's Eddie Neumann took third at the sectional.

While Roegner was not tested much this weekend, he continued a hot streak of strong play that also saw him claim the DuPage Valley Conference crown in impressive fashion on Tuesday.

"Ryan didn't get to play a lot of tennis today, but Tuesday in the conference meet that was one of the best matches I've seen Ryan play this year, so Ryan's hitting on all cylinders," said Redhawks coach Dan Brown, whose team looks primed for another state trophy run. "Naveen is playing absolutely the best tennis I've seen him play, and the doubles, we couldn't ask for anything more. I'm just happy that everyone's playing their best and we'll see what next week brings."

The Redhawks doubles teams are pretty much interchangeable, and each breezed to the finals this weekend, where Martin Matov and Ammaar Saeed outlasted teammates Joseph Li and Mark Polowczak 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 for the title.

The Matov-Saeed pair was seeded second having lost to their fellow Redhawks earlier this season at a tournament, but Matov with the win on Saturday captured his third sectional. He placed fifth in the state last spring with the since-graduated Bill Zhang and likes what he's seeing from this year's squad.

"Early in the season it was kind of rough. It was weird being on the other end where we're not battling last year's state champions because we're the state champions," Matov said of the Redhawks' unspectacular start to 2018. "We're everybody's biggest match. So everybody wants to make a statement and beat us. Hinsdale Central and New Trier came out with guns blazing and we were kind of up on our heels not expecting it.

"By now we all realize we have to take the court with some fire and confidence. We have to go into it with all we can. The competition at the state tournament is going to be more difficult this year as a team."

But the Redhawks appear up to the task.

"We've been playing together for a long time," Saeed said. "This is honestly the best that we've ever played. The past couple of weeks we've been focused and it's really been coming together. I'm happy to have it coming together at this time of the season. We're feeling really good."

Also advancing to state in doubles were the Metea Valley pair of Ian Doyle and Aleks Schroeder, and the Naperville North team of Kevin Zhang and Samuel Liu. The Mustangs placed third after the Huskies injury defaulted in the semis.