Standing at the baseline, fourth seed Chase Denholm ’18 smashed one of his signature cross-court topspin shots out of his opponent’s reach. The break point allowed Denholm to win a game in his match with a score of 8-0. Denholm was the first on the team to clinch his match, and the rest of Andover Boys Tennis quickly followed his lead to sweep Middlesex 7-0 on Friday.
Andover’s game at Middlesex was played in the eight game pro sets format. Normally, each match would consist of two to three sets with six games in each set. In the eight game pro set format, however, each match only had one set that consisted of eight games. Whoever won this set won the entire match.
First doubles, Captain Chris Kralik ’16 and Anupreeth Coramutla ’17, got off to a sluggish start and dropped two games. The pair soon bounced back and acclimated to the courts, and eventually secured an 8-2 win.
Andover went on to sweep both the second and third doubles matches. The second doubles pair, Denholm and Brian Niguidula ’17 played with poise to secure a 8-0 win. Third doubles, Tyler Shen ’17 and Jonathan Jow ’16, also made quick work of their opponents and finished their match 8-0.
Head Coach Gregory Wilkin said, “Our doubles are improving, with Anupreeth, who has terrific doubles instances, leading the way. [He closes] out doubles points aggressively, and [doesn’t let] anything weak survive at net.”
After Andover secured the doubles point, the team went on to play the singles matches. Denholm clinched his fourth seed match 8-0, and the rest of Andover’s ladder quickly followed suit.
Coramutla, playing at first singles, won 8-2. Maintaining his quality net play from the doubles match, Coramutla focused on rushing to the net to quickly win points.
Niguidula, at second singles, played with confidence and cruised to a 8-2 victory. Kralik mirrored this attitude and won the third seed match 8-1 with powerful cross-court and overhead shots.
Looking to maintain its winning ways, Andover hopes to defeat Deerfield at home on Saturday.
