Sircar streaks to silver at PIAA Championships
by: Boys Tennis Contributor
At this weekend’s PIAA Championships, North Allegheny’s Advaita Sircar breezed through the first three rounds to reach the
finals where he won the silver medal. The sophomore superstar’s bid to become NA’s first State Singles Champion in nearly 50 years, fell just short. Still, Sircar continues to etch his name into Tiger lore as he became just the fourth North Allegheny netter to reach the PIAA Singles Championship, and the first in 20 years.
On Friday afternoon, Sircar faced off against the District 10 champion from Erie McDowell, David Mikotowicz. The Tigers’ ace made quick work of the Trojan’s freshman defeating him in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. This set up an evening clash with Conestoga’s second singles player, senior Michael Gao. The sophomore sensation was nearly flawless as he pounded serve after serve past the Pioneer. Sircar won the first nine points of the match and sailed through the first set without dropping a point on serve. The second set was more of the same as he cruised to another 6-1, 6-2 victory.
On Saturday morning, the talented Tiger would seemingly have a tougher match with Gao’s teammate, Conestoga’s 1st singles player and District 1 champion, sophomore Ethan Sun. However, Sircar once again came out with blistering serves and a relentless groundstroke game. Sun had no answers for the endless array of shot making Sircar would throw at him as the Tiger punched his ticket to the final, 6-0, 6-1.
In the championship match, Sircar would square off against the consensus tournament favorite, Daniel Boone’s Chase Gerloff. Most in attendance seemed to believe the Blazer would run away with the title, but NA’s star had other 
plans. The pair traded service holds early before Gerloff got an early break to go up 3-2. Undaunted, Sircar quickly broke back to even the score at 3-3. Several more holds by both found them knotted at 6 and headed to a set tiebreak that Gerloff was able to wrestle away. The second set continued in a similar fashion as the two traded powerful groundstrokes. Ultimately, Gerloff prevailed 7-6 (1), 6-3.
For complete PIAA Singles results, click here.
The tournament caps off an outstanding sophomore campaign by Sircar as the young Tiger continues to prove he is one of the top players in the state and a force to be reckoned with in the future.
