Who will play for state berths in Columbus area's OHSAA boys tennis district tournaments?
Twenty-four singles players and 24 doubles teams will take to Columbus-area tennis courts Wednesday for the Division I and Division II district tournaments in boys tennis.
All of them will need two victories to advance to state May 23 and 24 at the College of Wooster.
Some are heavier favorites than others, and many qualifiers already have played each other this season.
The Division I tournament is at Upper Arlington. Columbus Academy will host Division II.
The first two rounds take place Wednesday, with the Division I semifinals and finals and Division II finals on Saturday. The top four finishers in singles and doubles advance to state in Division I, while only the district champion and runner-up qualify in Division II.
Here are five storylines entering district:
1. Columbus Academy switches pairings
A second consecutive run to the Division II state tournament wasn’t in the cards for brothers Nason and Rowen Lo, only because Nason expressed a desire early on to play singles in the postseason.
That left coach Preston Eberlyn to pair Rowen with Lucas Xue, the defending district singles champion.
So far, the move has worked out on both ends.
Nason, a sophomore, and Rowen and Xue – both juniors – won the Academy sectional titles. Nason and Rowen were third at state last year, and Xue split two matches.
“Lucas really likes doubles and he wanted to try doubles,” Eberlyn said. “Lucas is a steady ship. Rowen helps bring the energy and that’s one of the most important things with a doubles court. They communicate well on the court, which is so important. Rowen at the net has some great hands, and Lucas is a great all-around player, which works well in doubles, too. He’s learning the doubles pedigree, when to move in, all those things.”
2. New Albany’s Dandu demonstrates growth
After battling shoulder injuries in middle school and playing second and third singles the past two years, Eagles junior Abhinav Dandu has run with the top singles role this spring.
Dandu survived a rigorous Division I sectional at Hilliard Bradley, outlasting teammate Jackson Clements 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-2 in a semifinal and Olentangy Liberty’s Shane Hand 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the final. Dandu (10-3) is seeking his first state berth.
“He’s leveling up from being that really good player to being an elite player,” coach Marc Thomas said. “Our singles lineup is pretty strong. (Dandu and Clements) battle it out in practice all the time.
“He and Jackson push each other a lot, and I also think he’s very calm under pressure. He has had some big moments. Abhi has done a great job leading from the front.”
More on New Albany: What makes Ben Bilenko the perfect high school doubles player?
3. Record set, drought broken at Pickerington sectional
If Watkins Memorial’s Liam Grennan flew under the radar last season, he has enjoyed no such luxury this season in emerging as one of the area’s top singles players.
Coming off the championship of the Division I sectional at Pickerington Central, Grennan is 23-0 in singles and has a program-record 101 career wins. He set the record at sectional and his 27 total wins, with four in doubles, are one shy of his single-season record of 28 from last year.
“There is always pressure when you are (the) No. 1 seed because you feel like you have to live up to that,” Grennan told The (Newark) Advocate before the postseason.
Grennan is in his third consecutive district tournament and second in a row in singles. He is seeking his first state berth.
On the doubles side, DeSales’ Gabe Arbona and Brandon Heil snapped the Stallions’ 13-year drought of sectional titles, holding off Marion Harding’s Alexander and Sebastian Lisiecki 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in the final.
No DeSales player has qualified for state since 2011.
4. Three unseeded players make district
While the brackets at most of the six division I and II sectionals played out as expected, meaning the top four seeds in both singles and doubles earned district berths, three players who were unseeded entering the postseason advanced.
Chillicothe’s Noah Flores was the only one to do so in Division I, and singles players Phillip Ceshi (Coshocton) and Purin Songrug (Granville) advanced in Division II.
5. OTCA district finals set
Olentangy Orange (11-2) will seek its second consecutive Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Division I state berth Thursday when it hosts Olentangy Liberty (8-4) in the district final.
Orange made its first state tournament a year ago, ending New Albany’s six-year streak.
Academy (14-4) will host Central Buckeye League rival Bexley (14-8) in the Division II district final Thursday.
DISTRICT QUALIFIERS
Division I
Singles
Rudy Anamula, fr., Dublin Jerome; Nikhil Bhimireddy, so., Olentangy Orange; Jackson Clements, sr., New Albany; Noah Flores, fr., Chillicothe; Abhinav Dandu, jr., New Albany; Liam Grennan, sr., Watkins Memorial; Zach Haar, sr., Orange; Shane Hand, so., Olentangy Liberty; Owen Hawley, fr., Upper Arlington; Jeevan Konduru, sr., Big Walnut; Tommy O’Brien, jr., Watterson; Shailen Patel, so., Orange; Victor Roscoe, sr., St. Charles; Gianni Russo, jr., Marysville; Nik Shough, jr., Dublin Coffman; Shrey Shyamalan, sr., Westerville North
Doubles
Gabe Arbona, jr., and Brandon Heil, sr., DeSales; Arya Badri, so., and Krish Badri, sr., Liberty; Ben Bilenko, sr., and Tyler Thomas, so., New Albany; Marcus Bode, sr., and Liam Hand, sr., Liberty; Adarsh Chitti, sr., and Craig Dixon, sr., Hilliard Bradley; Jared Crawford, sr., and Andrew Temelkoff, sr., Hilliard Davidson; Geeth Donepudi, so., and Akash Ravipati, jr., Jerome; Keshav Goyal, so., and Jackson Lloyd, jr., Upper Arlington; Faraz Hussain, jr., and Kunaal Kurnani, sr., Dublin Scioto; Dhruv Kapadia, jr., and Eric Tang, sr., Orange; Alexander Lisiecki, sr., and Sebastian Lisiecki, so., Marion Harding; Aiden Palcheck, jr., and Luka Young, jr., Worthington Kilbourne; Devan Patel, so., and Luke Rutherford, fr., Orange; Willam Rigney-Carroll, sr., and Luca Sivilotti, sr., Upper Arlington; Graham Smith, so., and Nathan Walter, so., Watkins Memorial
Division II
Singles
Max Almasanu, jr., Bexley; Sujay Billakanty, fr., Columbus Academy; Phillip Csehi, jr., Coshocton; Henry Lessard, fr., Bexley; Nason Lo, so., Academy; Sanjan Shanker, sr., Wellington; Purin Songrug, so., Granville; Zach Wall, sr., London
Doubles
Hussein Al-Ali, sr., and Eric Carter, sr., Wellington; Abbott Arthur, fr., and Shivum Kalyanam, jr., Wellington; Isaac Banks, sr., and Gideon Sullivan, jr., Jonathan Alder; Connor Boggs, sr., and Drew Corbitt, sr., Jonathan Alder; Ian Chang, so., and Jacob Khvalsky, jr., Academy; Sam Lessard, jr., and Oscar Ramsden, sr., Bexley; Rowen Lo, jr., and Lucas Xue, jr., Academy; Emmett Pliskin, sr., and Adrian Schiff, so., Bexley
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OHSAA boys tennis: 5 central Ohio storylines for district tournaments
