Boys' Tennis News

by: Boys Tennis Contributor

At Tuesday’s WPIAL Doubles Championships, both NA teams performed well in their first-round matches. The Section 2 Champions, comprised of junior Ashwin Sudhakar and senior Matthew Kampi, were seeded #1 overall by the WPIAL Committee. The pair lived up to their seeding by dominating Latrobe’s Grant Gardiner and Eli McKeever, 10-1. Their Tiger teammates, juniors Shivum Telang and Ronit Ginde, also controlled their match against Fox Chapel’s Rocco Didomenico and Harrison Soose, 10-4.

The top seeds looked to be in good form in their quarterfinal match as well. NA’s top tandem took control and cruised to a 10-3 victory over South Fayette’s Harshal Palleria and Ani Garimella. Unfortunately, on the other side of the bracket, the Tigers’ two team battled hard against Upper St. Clair’s Carter Lichtman and Myles Owens, before falling, 10-7.

The semifinals pitted the Tigers against a two-time defending WPIAL doubles champion in Gateway’s Logan Memije, who paired with teammate Troy Boden. NA’s duo was not overly impressed by Gateway’s past glories as they raced to a 5-2 lead. The Gators battled back to 5-4, but Sudhakar’s serve proved too much and the pair took the first set, 6-4. The Tigers eliminated any hopes of a Gateway comeback by quickly winning the second set, 6-1.

Tomorrow, Sudhakar and Kampi look to become the first Tiger netters to win a WPIAL Doubles Championship since 2016, when Assistant Coach Jared Isaacs took home the gold with teammate Richard Hoffman.

 

Tournament Summary

First Round
#1 Ashwin Sudhakar/Matthew Kampi (NA) def. #16 Grant Gardiner/Eli McKeever (LAT) 10-1
#3 Shivum Telang/Ronit Ginde (NA) def. #14 Rocco Didomenico/Harrison Soose (FXC) 10-4

Quarterfinals

#1 Ashwin Sudhakar/Matthew Kampi (NA) def. #9 Harshal Palleria/Ani Garimella (SF) 10-3
#6 Carter Lichtman/Myles Owens (USC) def. #3 Shivum Telang/Ronit Ginde (NA)

Semifinals
#1 Ashwin Sudhakar/Matthew Kampi (NA) def. #4 Logan Memije/Troy Boden (GATE) 6-4, 6-1