By: Ken Weingartner
Lov Patel and Sam Saxena knew time was on their side.
So, even after starting the season 1-3 at second doubles, the Monroe High duo remained upbeat.
"Coach (Jim Kushner) knew at the beginning we wouldn’t be as strong," Patel said after the doubles squad improved to 6-3 with its fifth straight win Wednesday, beating Bishop Ahr. "Singles wise, we’re both strong players; we had to make two good singles players into a doubles team. Our coached help us and we knew we had confidence in ourselves. That helps us out."
Patel, a sophomore, played varsity doubles last year at North Bergen High. Saxena is a freshman.
"Lov is a good partner," Saxena said. "I like his game because it’s a lot like mine. He has experience and knows what to do in certain cases. He takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders. We only got put together a few days before our first match and started 1-3. Since then, we’ve been really good.
"I think we got to know each other better, developed chemistry. We know where each other is going to be on each shot so we can set each other up at the net."
The newfound chemistry has played to one of Patel’s strengths.
"I can understand my partner’s strengths and use them to my benefit; I think I’m pretty good at that," Patel said. "We work really good together. We congratulate each other after good points and in tough matches we stick together. We try not to make silly errors and try to do our best all the time."
Last week, Patel and Saxena won preliminary and first-round matches at the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament beating teams from Woodbridge and Colonia before losing to North Brunswick. Patel is looking forward to a rematch against the Raiders on Monday.
"We played three matches that day, and all of our matches were pretty long," Patel said. "If we had fresh legs, we have a shot at them. They’re not out of our league. They only played one match prior to us. We gave them a tough time."
Both Patel and Saxena would like to play singles next season. As it turns out, the Falcons will have two openings because No. 1 singles player Ken Stanley and No. 2 Darren Goldberg graduate.
"If I want to play singles I have to be more consistent on some of my shots," Saxena said. "I think I just have to do a lot of drilling, especially on my backhand. I think my groundstrokes are better than the other parts of my game. My serve is getting better as the year goes on."
On Tuesday, the Falcons beat Spotswood 5-0. Joining Patel and Saxena in picking up wins were Stanley, Goldberg, No. 3 singles player Jasmin Laferriere and the first doubles squad of Matt Sepe and Kevin Murtha. The first doubles team also reached the second round of the GMCT.
The doubles teams joined Goldberg, who is 12-0 this season, in winning Wednesday against Bishop Ahr. Monroe improved to 10-2 for the campaign.
Saxena called the season "amazing." Added Patel, "Everybody’s been working extra hard in practice. We’re motivating each other. Coach has been pushing us, and we’ve been giving him the results."
Even if it took a little time to get there.

