Boys Tennis Sports Spring Sports

Boys Tennis Drops Tight Match

First seed Brian Niguidula ’17 slammed an overhead above the outstretched racket of his opponent to secure a point in his eventual 6-1, 6-3 victory. Despite Niguidula’s win, Andover fell short in its game against Taft on Sunday, which ended in a 4-3 loss and brought Andover’s record to 0-2.

Crippled by illness and injury, Andover Boys Tennis struggled in the doubles portion of its matchup against Taft. Newcomers Louis Aaron ’18 and Buzzy Barrow ’18 substituted in for Andover’s matchup with Taft because both Jonathan Jow ’16 and Chase Denholm ’18 were out.

Although first seed doubles – with Captain Chris Kralik ’16 and Anupreeth Coramutla ’17 at the helm – won, both second and third doubles lost. The two losses resulted in Taft winning the doubles point.

Kralik said, “I think it would have been really good for us to win the doubles point, which we didn’t really do. The way the doubles point works is that the team that wins two out of the three matches takes all the points and we only lost by one point, so it would have definitely been good to have won the doubles matches.”

Andover’s team fared better in the singles matches. Niguidula, Coramutla, and Kralik – first, second, and third seeds respectively – came out firing, each securing a point for Andover with their singles matches.

Coramutla’s singles match featured his fantastic net game. Coramutla overcame his opponent using overhead shots, volleys, and strategic slices. He outlasted his opponent in both sets and went on to win his match 6-3, 6-3.

In the second singles match, Kralik and his opponent looked evenly matched throughout each point. Eventually, Kralik settled into a rhythm and attacked the other player, resulting in a 7-5, 6-3 win.

Aaron and Barrow played fifth and sixth seed singles, respectively. Although both players kept their matches competitive, both eventually lost.

Returner Tyler Shen ’17 won his first set 7-5, before losing two consecutive sets 6-1, 6-1.

All these matches culminated in a 4-3 loss for Andover overall.

Kralik said, “We haven’t had a lot of practice because of the weather and we need to be more confident. I felt more confident on Sunday and I won my match. If our players gained confidence on the court we would be a very hard team to beat.”

“This match was a great learning experience for us,” Coramutla said, “We showed great team support and we will definitely use the motivation of the loss towards our next match against Middlesex.”

Andover looks to break their losing streak and secure a win against Middlesex on Friday.