Young Bears up to challenge at GMC boys’ tennis tourney
Old Bridge duo pulls off upsets in semifinal round
There were a number of surprises in last weekend’s Greater Middlesex Conference Boys’ Tennis Tournament, but the East Brunswick squad’s dominating performance was not one of them.
The Bears won the team title with 18 points, and took home first-place finishes in four of the five flights, repeating as GMC champs despite featuring several new faces.
After last year’s senior-laden squad had a similar showing in the conference tourney, questions were raised whether this year’s crop of standouts from East Brunswick was equal to the task.
Those questions have been emphatically answered.
First singles phenom Vivek Subramanian started the Bear onslaught with a 6-1, 6-0 finals win over Old Bridge’s Justin Lefkowitz. The defending champion was brilliant in Monday’s final, overpowering his opponent despite playing through a slightly injured left shin.
It was just the latest impressive performance from the GMC’s top player. And he’s only a sophomore.
At third singles, East Brunswick freshman Ilya Kazakin-Kuteyev rallied for a 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over J.P. Stevens’ Alex Gartenfeld. The freshman came out tight and was making uncharacteristic unforced errors in the first set, but he turned the tide in the second set and eventually took control.
The Bears’ doubles team of freshman Ross Cohn and sophomore Ross Switkes topped Edison’s Boris Kochherov and Ankur Patel 6-3, 6-2 at first doubles, while junior Jonathon Cohn and sophomore David Liu scored a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win over J.P. Stevens’ tandem of Vijay Renjen and Dave Kitchell.
The four flight wins served notice to the GMC that the Bears may be young but have no intentions of giving up their spot atop the conference’s tennis scene. It was both an impressive demonstration of their current dominance and a promise of things to come. Local tennis fans should get used to seeing coach Bill Pellagrino’s Bears atop the conference’s rankings.
While the Bears were solidifying their status as the GMC’s best, the Old Bridge Knights continued to close the gap between themselves and the conference’s elite teams.
The Knights finished in third place with 11 points behind the Bears and J.P. Stevens (13) and advanced two players to Monday’s final while receiving a third-place finish in another flight.
First singles player Jason Lefkowitz was seeded third at first singles but knocked off the No. 2 seed, South Brunswick’s Shangril Shah, 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinal round Saturday. The sophomore’s steady, consistent play forced Shah into a number of uncharacteristic unforced errors, earning him the victory and the shot at Subramanian on Monday.
At second singles, Old Bridge freshman Ryan Glubo scored an upset of his own when he knocked out second-seeded Jay Kaplan of East Brunswick, 6-2, 6-4 in Saturday’s semifinal round. The Old Bridge sophomore kept the ball in play against Kaplan, forcing the Bear into a number of unforced errors.
In the final, Glubo was overmatched by Stevens’ Kapil Kale, the top seed, 6-2, 6-1, but gained valuable experience in his first GMC Tournament appearance.
The Knights’ second doubles team of Dan Tsin and Albert Liu bounced back from a 6-2, 6-4 semifinal loss to EB’s championship team to score a third-place win over Metuchen’s Nestor Mercado and Jacob Pretyka, while third singles player Will Prince dropped his consolation match to South Brunswick’s Sean Hammer, 7-6 (8-6), 6-0.