Boys tennis: Hersey's Sheldon, Naperville Central duo on course for state titles

The 2021 IHSA boys state tennis championships are nearing an end after two days of intense heat and action and both Hersey's Max Sheldon and the Naperville Central doubles team of Blake Roegner and Daanyal Saeed will be on center stage Saturday in Arlington Heights.

The sensational seniors will compete for Class 2A state titles when day No. 3 opens Saturday at host Hersey High School at 8 a.m. with the top seed Sheldon (29-1) taking on No. 2 Max Bengtsson (19-2 of New Trier, while the No. 2 Redhawks (23-2) face No. 1 Colin Fox-John Rogers (16-0) of New Trier.

"Two years ago when Max lost in the finals he turned to me and said, 'next year, same place, same time' but we didn't know we would have to wait two years to get back into the final," said Hersey coach Andy Walton. "Max has been thinking about this day, this stage, literally 730-plus days, so we're all excited for him to have this opportunity once again."

Sheldon came back from a slow start in his quarterfinal with Nikita Filin to defeat the New Trier freshman 6-4, 6-2 to advance and it was more of the same when he met Aash Shah (12-1) of Hinsdale Central in his semifinal.

"It was kind of a roller-coaster quarterfinal and semifinal. My returns were flying all over the place, but I finally got back to playing the way I knew I could and thanks to a big cheering section in both of my matches, which really helped fire me up, I was able to get back into the match I've been wanting ever since my loss in the final two years ago," said Sheldon.

Sheldon would roar back to force a tiebreaker in his first set with Shah, but fell behind quickly (0-3) before going back in front (6-4) then finishing off the Red Devils' senior with a nasty return.

Shah was forced to take an injury default with a bad case of leg cramps, which he suffered in his quarterfinal against Glenbrook South senior Marc Blekhman, which ended with Blekhman retiring in the third set with leg cramps as well.

The Redhawks' duo, who outlasted 5-8 Glenbard West (15-2) in their quarterfinal, 7-5, 7-6 (4) were forced to chase the Trevians' Matthew Plunkett-Jay Wagh team after dropping their first set 6-3.

"We were giving away a lot of free points and New Trier took advantage of it especially in the first one and half sets," said Saeed.

"We became more aggressive from the middle of the second set on and were more active and consistent and made them play more than they wanted to," added Roegner.

The Redhawks won a long deuce game to go up 6-5 in the second set before earning a 7-5 victory to force a third set, which they took control of when Saeed held serve to make it 4-3.

"This is where we want to be - in the final - as seniors. We have one more chance," echoed the Redhawks' duo after their three-hour semifinal came to an exciting end.

Stevenson senior Eric Perkowski (18-4) fell short in his bid to reach the final following his 6-4, 6-1 defeat to Bengtsson in a quarterfinal.

"Bengtsson is a quality player and he played some great overall tennis, rarely making any mistakes against Eric," said Stevenson assistant coach Blake Bazarnik, a state champion in 2009 for the Patriots.

Perkowski will play for third place Saturday against Shah, while his club remains in third place overall with 25 points behind tourney leader New Trier (40) and Hinsdale Central with 34 points.

Hersey sits in fourth with 22, followed closely by Barrington (20) and Jacobs at 19, the best finish in program history.

Barrington's Ethan Paik-Ammar Wazir (29-5) came back from a disappointing three-set loss to New Trier (Fox-Rogers) in a quarterfinal to win their consolation quarterfinal to stay alive in the medal hunt.

"It was heckuva effort from our boys against a solid New Trier team which played like the top seed when it needed to by hitting big shots when they needed them," said Broncos head coach John Roncone.

Tad Keely, head coach at Glenbard West, felt the same way about his team of Andrew Immink-Sullivan Monteith after their 7-5, 7-6 (4) loss to Naperville Central in the quarterfinals.

"We had a 2 1/2 hour marathon with Central, but we didn't't have enough in the tank to beat them," began Keely. "Our guys fought hard all throughout but credit (Central), they're not the No. 2 seed for nothing, and they played like that when they needed to."

The Hilltoppers won their consolation quarterfinal, and will play Hinsdale Central's No. 2 team Saturday.

In the Class 1A tournament, Chicago Latin holds a commanding lead in the team race over second place Champaign Centennial and Metamora (30-19) and Vernon Hills and Wheaton Academy, each with 18 points. Benet Academy is next with 14 points, with its doubles team of Noah Bobofchak-Andrew Donovan still in the mix for a state medal.

"Latin was bigger, stronger and hit big-time shots when they needed to, so they were the better team," agreed both Bobofchak and Donovan following their 6-1, 6-4 defeat at the hands of the No. 1 team from Latin.

"We played so much better from the middle of the second set on so we're looking to take that into our third-place match today," added Donovan.

The Redwings had won 13 straight until this loss, and will now face Urbana to claim the first state medal for the program since 2007 when Connor Roth finished second overall at singles.

Crystal Lake South junior Jackson Schuetzle (32-5) will collect the first state medal for the Gators since Jack Komar did so in 2003 when he goes after a third-place medal against top seed Sujan Garapati (Chicago Latin), who was upset in the semifinals by Peter Adams-Agresti (Beacon Academy) in three sets.

Schuetzle earned his spot in the semifinals after a hard-fought three-set victory over 5-8 Jacob Williams (Wheaton Academy) but his hopes of reaching the final were dashed by 5-8 Max Braun (Champaign Centennial), who earlier upended No. 2 Finley Buelte (Rockford Christian) in straight sets.

"Jackson came back really strong in his quarterfinal when he kept his opponent deep with his returns and decided to grind it out by playing up the middle and using his big forehand, but in his semifinal (Braun) just didn't miss any of his shots. He was steady, solid, and probably put 75% to 80% of his first serves in," said Gators head coach Rick Bailey.