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Valley tennis players advance to districts
(by Tony Lange - May 16, 2012)
Valley tennis players advance to districts
By TONY LANGE
Four singles players and four doubles teams from the Chagrin Valley advanced to the Division II Northeast District tennis tournament after finishing in the top four at the Brush Sectional tournament in Lyndhurst last Saturday.
University School advanced singles players Billy Lennon and Rob Stroup and doubles team Danny Huang and Lukas Zalesky.
Orange advanced singles player Max Kan and doubles team Ron Beilinson and Josh Rapkin.
Hawken School advanced singles player Dhruv Yadav and doubles team Siddarth Ahuja and Daniel Lubarsky.
Gilmour Academy advanced doubles team Weston Noall and Mike Riley.
Those 12 players will compete at the district tournament at 9 a.m. May 18 at Weis Park in Canton.
At the sectional tournament in Lyndhurst, 45 singles players and 30 doubles teams competed.
In the singles bracket, Orange's Kan beat his opponents from Chagrin Falls, 6-0, 6-0, Beachwood, 6-0, 6-0, Jefferson, 6-0, 6-0, and University School's Stroup, 6-0, 6-0, to advance to the finals.
University School's Lennon beat his opponents from Gilmour, 6-0, 6-0, Lake Catholic, 6-0, 6-0, Perry, 6-0, 6-0, and Hawken's Yadav, 6-4, 6-0, to advance to the finals.
In the finals match, Kan beat Lennon, 6-0, 7-5.
Meanwhile, a third-place match between Stroup and Yadav was brewing.
Stroup beat his opponents from Wickliffe, 6-0, 6-0, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, 6-0, 6-0, and Geneva, 6-1, 6-4, before losing to Kan in the semifinals.
Yadav beat his opponents from Orange, 6-0, 6-0, Edgewood, 6-0, 6-0, and Jefferson, 6-1, 6-0, before losing to Lennon in the semifinals.
In the third-place match, Yadav beat Stroup, 6-1, 6-3.
In the doubles bracket, Hawken's Ahuja and Lubarsky beat their opponents from NDCL, 6-0, 6-1, Perry, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, and Orange's Beilinson and Rapkin, 6-2, 6-3, to advance to the finals.
Gilmour's Noall and Riley beat Hawken's No. 2 doubles team, 6-0, 6-0, their opponents from Perry, 6-0, 6-0, their opponents from NDCL, 6-2, 6-0, and University School's Huang and Zalesky, 6-4, 7-5, to advance to the finals.
In the finals match, Ahuja and Lubarsky beat Noall and Riley in three sets with two tiebreakers, 7-6 (1), 6-7 (4), 7-5.
Meanwhile, a third-place match between Huang-Zalesky and Beilinson-Rapkin was cooking.
Huang and Zalesky beat their opponents from Wickliffe, 6-0, 6-0, and Chagrin Falls, 6-4, 7-6 (5), before losing to Gilmour in the semifinals.
Beilinson and Rapkin beat Gilmour's No. 2 doubles team, 6-2, 6-1, their opponents from Geneva, 7-5, 6-2, and University School's No. 2 doubles team, 7-5, 6-2, before losing to Hawken in the semifinals.
In the third-place match, Huang and Zalesky beat Beilinson and Rapkin in a three-set tiebreaker, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (4).
The top four players at the Canton District tournament, which includes 16 singles and 16 doubles, will qualify for the state tournament May 25 and 26 at Ohio State University's outdoor varsity tennis courts in Columbus.
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