Asamthambi, Shepard end successful run with runner-up finish
May 13—Familiarity played a big role in the state tennis tournament run for Ram Asamthambi and Ethan Shepherd.
Familiarity with the guys on the other side of the net, but also familiarity with one another. Both paid off, and even though they fell one victory short of their goal, there's reason for optimism moving into next season.
The Woodrow Wilson juniors advanced to the finals of the Class AAA state boys doubles tournament on Saturday, where they fell to the top-seeded duo of Jacob Smolder and Zachary Giertz of Hurricane in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.
It was already a big season for the boys team, which last week won its first Region 3 championship since 1991. Now, a strong showing in the doubles tournament is something else to build on.
"It's super huge, especially going deep in the state tournament," Asamthambi said. "You play against the best of the best. I think this was our best year. We went super deep, and for a team — and for us as doubles partners — and for singles it's huge being able to compete against the best of the best, seeing how well you can do and seeing how far you can go."
"It's awesome to bring Woodrow back towards the top in tennis, playing the best of the best," Shepard added. "He (coach Bernie Bostick) was just talking to us about all these top teams wanting to schedule us next year. It's fun."
Asamthambi and Shepard, the No. 3 team, didn't just catch fire for a weekend. They played well together all season. In fact, their finals loss was their only one of the year, finishing at 28-1.
The big thing was getting used to each other. This was their first high school season together as a doubles duo — Shepard is Asamthambi's third partner in as many seasons.
"Teaming up this year, it got gradually better as the year went on," Shepard said. "Next year we'll be even more (familiar). We'll just play together more and more. It helps playing with the same partner for a while."
The two were able to get preparation last summer and will do the same this year.
"We are planning on playing some doubles tournaments together this summer," Shepard said. "Working on getting to that next level together."
Asamthambi and Shepard got their tournament started Friday with familiar faces staring back at them. Their first round opponents were the sixth-seeded duo of George Washington's Samir Jones and Owen Erlewine.
The Woodrow duo defeated Jones and Erlewine for the Region 3 championship. That was the fourth victory of the season for Asamthambi and Shepard over the GW team, which presented a problem all its own.
"It's always tough to beat the same team five teams in a row," Shepard said. "When you play that much, you start to figure each other out and it just gets tougher and tougher to take advantage of it, the things you did the first time."
The match was every bit as tight as Asamthambi and Shepard anticipated. They did, however, complete the season sweep with a 9-8 (7-4) tiebreaker victory.
That put them in Saturday's semifinals against the second-seeded team of Cabell Midland seniors Ashton Cottrell and Jack Erwin. It wasn't as close, but Asamthambi and Shepard fought for an 8-5 win.
"We didn't get to play them in the regular season, so it was the first time that we got to look at both of the guys," Asamthambi said. "We didn't see them in singles, we didn't see them in the team (tournament). Playing against them, we really just had to play a solid game, where we take what we did from the first match and just, you know what, let's figure things out when we're on the court. Is there something we can change or adapt to? and we were able to prevail in that way. It was good to play them. They were No. 2 in the state and we were able to show them that that's not the case."
In a matter of literal minutes, they were back on the court to play for the championship against Smolder and Giertz. That morning, the two had been adversaries, with eventual state champion Smolder taking an 8-1 victory in the singles semifinals.
The match took on a new dynamic going to best of 3 sets instead of playing to eight.
"When you're playing two out of three, you usually use the first set to try to figure things out, figure out the opponents and what you want to target," Shepard said. "It was definitely different having that longer set to take time to figure things out compared to eight games where you've got to go and perform immediately."
"Really it came down to our aggression at the net," Asamthambi said. "I think if we had played a little more up there and got in on our chances there, it would definitely have swayed a different way. (Winning) could have been possible. But those guys were No. 1, have been working together the last three years, I'd say. They've been playing together since I started playing, so it just came down to experience."
On to next season, and Asamthambi is looking forward not only to the increased familiarity but also some consistency. And, just maybe, a step up one more rung.
"It's staying like that next year, which is amazing, just playing with him," he said. "I think our styles and the way we work together on the court just meshes perfectly. I think give us another year and we can become a really dangerous asset on the court come next year. I think that's really part of it. You get better from one another, and we do things that complement each other, allow each other to shine on the court in different ways. I think it's going to be really exciting having the same partner and being able to build on the things we did this year. If we can build on No. 2, No. 1 is definitely waiting there for us."
