Boys tennis: MSL meet heads to final day with top matches on tap
Whether it's high school, college or professional tennis, it's the No. 1s that everyone pays attention to and, to be honest, that's where the top players are almost always found.
This would hold true at the Mid-Suburban League boys tennis championships, where the bracket is loaded with plenty of state qualifiers and a group in the top six that has over 90 wins between them.
But with the recent influx of talented players on several MSL rosters the play at No. 2 singles has taken a sharp upward swing.
After the second day of play, all but one of the top seeds at the seven flights have advanced into Saturday's semifinals, including all four at No. 2.
Defending MSL champion and top seed Ammar Wazir of Barrington (22-5), along with No. 2 seed, Kaahan Motwani (Conant) were both easy winners, while 3-4 seeds Arnav Sangamnerkar (Fremd, 14-9) and Kacper Pasielak (Hersey, 13-2) will join their league rivals in the semis following their straight-set victories as well.
"Ammar has stepped it up in the last month, and he's really played well becoming a consistent ball striker while developing some frontcourt sills also," said Barrington head coach John Roncone of his 2018 state qualifier.
Both the Broncos and division rival Fremd have all seven of their teams still alive in the front draw with Motwani and his club from Conant advancing six.
Motwani, like Wazir, was a 6-0, 6-0 victor on Friday, setting up a Wazi-Sangamnerkar and Motwani-Pasielak semifinal.
"Rameen has a lot of weapons, and plays an aggressive game and is a true team player, which says a lot about him as just a freshman on the varsity," said Conant head coach Dave Koleno of Motwant, who is 25-7 overall.
The top four at No. 2 features three freshmen and one sophomore (Wazir) with another sophomore, No. 6 Shea Abernethy (Rolling Meadows) and Krishna Tewari (Palatine) the veteran of this group as a junior.
Tewari (15-7) lost a hard-fought 6-2, 6-2 quarterfinal to Sangamnerkar at Buffalo Grove, and will now set his sights at a fifth-place finish today.
"It was 2 + 2 with Arnav but I was hitting all of my spots and dictating the points. He just outplayed me in the big points," said a gracious Tewari.
After the final pairing are settled at the various locations, all of those who advanced will come to Hersey and the Tom Pitchford Courts to decide the seven championships - three at singles and four at doubles.
Barrington will look to lift the championship trophy for a record eighth consecutive time.