Mountain Lakes Boys Tennis Season:
The tennis season is just starting for the Mountain Lakes Boys Tennis team. After 2 weeks of challenge matches to determine their roster, both the JV and Varsity teams had their first official scrimmage last week. The JV & varsity lineups were as follows:
JV Lineup:
Rohith Nallapothula & Omar Itani – 1st Doubles
Ethan Leung & Kieran Finnie – 2nd Doubles
Adam Cherry & Edan Yang – 3rd Doubles
Ethan Pang & Craig Zhou – 4th Doubles
Jacob Lakoff & Daniel – 5th Doubles
Varsity Lineup:
Johnathan Barnett – 1st Singles
Deagan O’Shaughnessy – 2nd Singles 2
Rohan Reddy – 3rd Singles
Harry Joelsson & Thomas Berei – 1st Doubles
William Berei & Glen Finnie – 2nd Doubles
Caleb Sbar, Ludvig Larsen & Arthur Chen- 3rd Doubles
We are all excited to see how everyone performs this season. With a match on Thursday & Friday next week, Mountain Lakes is looking to start their performance off strong!
Association of Tennis Professional Season:
Paired with the promising start of the Mountain Lakes tennis team, March is also a massive month for tennis fans all around the globe. Before we explain these tournaments, let’s explain tennis rankings & different tennis tournaments.
Masters 1000s tournaments are the second largest type of tournament below the 4 Grand Slams (US Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon, French Open). There are 9 tournaments that make up the Masters 1000 titles: The Canadian Open, Indian Wells Open, Miami Open, Italian Open, Monte-Carlo Masters, Madrid Open, Cincinnati Open, Shanghai Masters, and Paris Masters. Players compete in a single elimination bracket based on their global rankings. In these matches, the first player to 2 sets wins compared to the 3 sets needed to win for a grand slam tournament.
With that being said, the month of march holds two out of the nine Masters 1000 tennis tournaments back to back in Indian Wells, California and Miami, Florida. Nicknamed the “Sunshine Double” because of the warm and sunny conditions in both locations, everyone was excited to see who would come out on top. Due to his recent doping scandal, the previous world #1, Jannik Sinner, has been banned for 3 months, ending on May 4th. This has caused him to miss these important tournaments in March. Many viewers thought that this would leave a gap in skill level that was already present since Jannik Sinner had been very dominant in the past few months, destroying the competition at the Australian Open in the beginning of the year. Since it seemed like Carlos Alcaraz was the only player who strongly challenged Jannik, it seemed clear that he would blow away the competition. However, Jack Draper had very different plans in mind.
Indian Wells:
While this past weekend held many surprises it also offered a lot of reassurance for the tennis world. Jack Draper (GB) ultimately took home the trophy 6-2, 6-2 from Holger Rune (DNK). Before the finals, Draper upset the tennis world by defeating Carlos Alcaraz (ESP), the World Ranked #2, 6-1, 0-6, 6-4. Called the next Rafael Nadal, Alcaraz relies on his smart drop shot game, powerful forehand, and quick movement to win points. Furthermore, he has adjusted his serve technique since last year and it is starting to become a massive weapon for him. However, ultimately, Draper was able to push Alcaraz deep on both sides of the court, stopping him from getting into his game. In a three set battle, despite not even winning a game in the second set, Draper squeezed out with a victory. One notable moment in the match was due to a poor umpire call that took Alcaraz mentally out of the match after he had been gaining momentum for the past set.
On the other side of the bracket, Rune defeated Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 7-5, 6-4. Medvedev, the former World #1 (Achieved February 28, 2022) has not been in his prime form. Medvedev has had struggles getting to the finals, typically losing to powerhouses like Sinner. Rune on the other hand, has been steadily climbing the rankings, showing that he can compete in the era after the Big Three. In the Round of 16, he defeated Tsitsipas (GRE) 6-4, 6-4.
The women’s matchups offered very similar stories. Mirra Andreeva (RUS) defeated the World Ranked #1 Aryna Sabalenka (BYS) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Sabalenka, similar to Alcaraz, relies on a powerful swing, and wins not on unforced errors but instead winners. While that strategy did not work out against Andreeva, it certainly provided an advantage against Madison Keys (USA), winning in a commanding 6-0, 6-1 match. After losing in the Australian Open to Madison Keys, it seemed like Sabalenka took the match personally.
Andreeva, on the other hand, had to fight it out in a close 3 set match against Iga Świątek (POL) in the semifinals. With a tiebreaker in the first set going to Andreeva 7-6 (7-1) and a second set going 1-6 to Świątek, the final set would determine the winner. There, Andreeva came out on top 6-3.
Unfortunately, Coco Gauff (USA), World Ranked #3, went out early in the tournament during the round of 16. While she did lose to Belinda Bencic, it was extremely close. Bencic came out on top 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Those are the most notable matches in the Indian Wells tournament. Of course, each match tells its own story and deserves to be highlighted, but these are the ones that caught our eyes.
Miami Open:
This week, the Miami Open began and the draws are very interesting. In my opinion, despite his win in Indian Wells, the continuous match play for Jack Draper will become too great especially when he has been known to struggle with his fitness. The same goes for Holger Rune. With an early match versus a strong server like Reilly Opelka, Holger Rune has a strong chance of being blasted out of Miami considering his hesitation during points in the final at Indian Wells.
Even though he is on home soil, Taylor Fritz has not been playing his best tennis recently and will be challenged by early matches against Senego and Shapovalov who have made strong runs in tournaments this year in the Australian open and Mexican Open respectively. And, despite his loss in Indian Wells, Alcaraz has been playing amazing tennis and seems like a strong contender for the title in Miami.
Miami will be very important for both Francis Tiafoe and Ben Shelton as well. They are both Americans who are desperate for a title this year. Tiafoe has been struggling to establish himself as a strong player this year with many short tournament runs. Ben Shelton has been making many impressive runs at many tournaments this year like his quarterfinal run at the Australian Open, and he will be looking to add a title to them. As a former Florida Gator, Shelton is familiar with the climate. Shelton’s lefty serve, strong forehand, and relentless attacking style will give him an edge against opponents in Miami. For me, he is a strong contender for the title in Miami.
It would be impossible to talk about tennis without mentioning Novak Djokovic (The youngest of the “Big Three” along with R. Federer and R. Nadal). He played far from his best tennis in Indian Wells and is looking to add another title to his extensive collection. For me, he would be a strong contender if he did not have an early match against Alcaraz. After his loss to Djokovic in the Australian Open, Alcaraz will be looking for revenge where I believe he will win a somewhat close match.
For the women’s side of the draw, Keys defeats Avanesyan 6-3, 6-3, looking to continue her deep runs at tournaments. Andreeva wins 6-0, 6-2 against Kudermetova, offering no chance for the Russian. Svitolina, World Ranked #22, succeeds in defeating Bencic 6-1, 6-2. Their head-to-head matchups were 3-2 favoring Svitolina going into this game. Sablenka and Gauff look to win their matches on Sunday.
That’s all! Thank you for reading until the end and we hope everyone starts or continues tracking this season of tennis.
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