After an intense eight-shot rally, first seed Anupreeth Coramutla ’17 lobbed the ball far beyond the reach of his Deerfield opponent to secure a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory in his match for Andover Boys Tennis. His close finish was one of the many strong individual performances in Andover’s 5-1 victory on Saturday. The team’s record now stands at 3-2.
Because of a long rain delay, Andover had to omit all doubles matches against Deerfield. The revised format of the match defined the winning team as the one that claimed at least four of the six singles matches.
Andover got off to a hot start, winning two quick matches at third and fourth singles. Captain Chris Kralik ’16 finished his match quickest, winning 6-0, 6-0. At third seed, Kralik outclassed his opponent, as reflected in the match’s score.
Inspired by his captain, fourth seed Chase Denholm ’18 finished his match second, beating his opponent to the tune of a two-set 6-1, 7-5 victory. Denholm’s first set ended quickly, but his second set was a miraculous comeback. His Deerfield opponent took an enormous 5-1 game lead, at which point Denholm turned to his captain for advice. Kralik advised him to place shots nearer to the net and attack his opponent. The strategy helped Denholm make his incredible six-game comeback.
“After I went down 5-1 in the second set, I just changed my game a little bit to a more aggressive style instead of defensive and it payed off,” said Denholm. “Also, on the changeovers I turned to Chris for a little advice. My opponent came to the net a lot and I tried to place the ball too well which ended up making me miss, but Chris instructed me to make the guy at the net volley. He didn’t have great volleys which allowed me to turn the momentum around in my favor.”
Following the model set by Kralik and Denholm, sixth seed Tyler Shen ’17 defeated his opponent in 2 sets, winning 6-2, 6-1. Shortly after Shen’s win, second seed Brian Niguidula ’17 lost a hard fought match.
First seeded Coramutla was able to finish his match in a time of under three hours to remain undefeated on the season, and secure a victory for Andover.
Coramutla said, “[The team] came out energized and hungry for the win. I played a tough match, and each point was hard to win. Now we should keep our momentum up.”
Fifth seed Jonathan Jow ’16 also captured a victory. Jow played a lengthy match, winning a tiebreaker at the end of his third set to finish 6-4, 5-7, 7-6.
Looking ahead, Andover has a busy week with matchups against Groton, Nobles, St. Paul’s, and Exeter.
