Senior captures MCT tennis title
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Probably for the first time in Mercer County Tournament boys tennis history, the first singles champion was put to work minutes after winning his title.
A Mercer County Park summer employee, Ramy Bekhiet didn’t mind taking down the tournament tent and putting away the table and chairs that housed the scoring area.
He was practically whistling while he worked after making history of a bigger sort last Wednesday at MCP. The Robbinsville High School senior became the first flight champion in school history with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Michael Song of team champion West Windsor-Plainsboro South. He’d won two tiebreakers to defeat Hun’s Chris Seitz in the semifinals and prevail as the No. 3 seed.
”It was nice, my senior year finishing off with a bang,” Bekhiet said. “Last year, I lost to both of those guys, one after another. Beating them this year was great.”
This year, Bekhiet lined them up and exacted his revenge, first with a 7-6, 7-6 win over Seitz, who was denied a fourth straight trip to the MCT finals, and then disposing of Song, who had pushed Bekhiet to a third set in their regular-season match.
”The first match, I could have played better,” Bekhiet said. “I wasn’t as consistent on my backhand side. I wasn’t playing the ball deep enough. But second match, I thought I played a lot better. First match, I could have been better. I was a little disappointed. Even though I won, it was the way I played. I played pretty well, but it could have been better.”
It was light years better than he’d ever done before. He broke his hand and missed the MCT as a freshman, then was knocked out in the first round of his sophomore year. Last year, he came in an unmotivated fourth.
”I was improving every year, so that was good,” Bekhiet said. “The second day last year, I was stiff. The second match, I didn’t even want to play. I lost pretty badly to Seitz. I didn’t really put up a good fight. Against Song, I didn’t really have it in me.”
That was some of the old Bekhiet. Not only has his physical game improved, but his mental game is much stronger as well. Aside from the sort of frustration he showed in the regular-season match with Song, who rallied to push ahead, 4-0, in the third set before Bekhiet regained his cool, he’s been a lot steadier on the court.
”I’ve only been here for two years, but he’s been mature and he’s been a leader,” said Robbinsville head coach Chris Chirico. “From what I heard from previous years, he had a tendency to lose his head, lose his cool. When we started, we laid out the ground rules of what he expected of me as a coach and what I expected of him as a player. That kind of took that away. Once we took that away, he has all the shots to compete and beat the top players. I don’t think there’s anything massively different, and that’s why he’s winning now.”
Bekhiet’s day was only part of the thrill for the Ravens, who finished third overall in the team standings with 14½ points, well ahead of fourth-place West Windsor-Plainsboro North. Only WW-P South (24 points) and Hopewell Valley (17) did better.
”That’s the first time our team has placed so high,” Chirico said. “Our total team got to the quarters or better. It’s our best run ever as a team.”
At second singles, Sammer Bekhiet bounced back from a hard-fought three-set loss in the semifinals to pick up third place, his highest finish. Their brother Ziad reached the quarterfinals at third singles, as did Justin Magariello and Karthik Paka at first doubles and Andrew DiMaggio and Julien Esteban at second doubles.
”Some of them feel down from losing (Monday),” Ramy Bekhiet said. “They wanted to win. Hopefully being third will boost their confidence.”
It’s still early in the season, but Robbinsville is enjoying its finest year yet. Bekhiet has the chance to make it even more special as he looks to improve on last year’s Top 16 finish at the individual state tournament.
”Going into the states, I think he’ll have a lot more confidence,” Chirico said. “He really worked hard. Right now, we’re seeing some short-term payoff from all the hard work he’s done. He’s going to college next year, so everything we’re doing, like working on the serve, it’s all stuff he’ll need when he’s playing Division I.”
Bekhiet will continue his career at Monmouth University, where he hopes to win one of the top spots on the men’s team.
”It’s going to be a great time,” Bekhiet said. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was young to play Division I tennis. I hope to play top three next year, play some doubles. I know some kids on the team so it’s going to be very exciting.”
A MCT crown was an encouraging step for him. It gives him some solid proof of how far he has come.
”I was confident I had it in me,” Bekhiet said. “(Chirico) prepared me. He told me strategies to prepare for those guys, different strategies to become more versatile. I was sort of one-dimensional, playing attack, attack, attack from the baseline. I need to come to the net, chip, move them around. I was just trying to play through the person instead of being more versatile.
”I needed to change up my game because I’m playing college next year. I wanted to adapt because I’ll be playing players a lot tougher next year. I needed to change my game.”
Maybe the biggest thing for Bekhiet was being open to change. He didn’t resist when Chirico worked with him on how to improve and develop a better all-around game.
”Last year, he had some flaws,” Chirico said. “But the best thing about them is he wanted to work through them. He wanted to work to make sure he didn’t have any. He really increased his work ethic a lot.
”The other thing is we’ve really been working on a lot on his shot selection,” he said. “He tried playing straight through the people before, like he was going to knock the guy out or he was going to take down the wall. I said, you can open the door and walk around it and not go through it. He’s using a lot more strategy. He’s working on his fitness and trying to get a little faster. He was kind of like a tank out there. He’s doing well in that aspect of the sport — he’s working on his strategy, his fitness, his confidence has gone up.”
And with every match that he dominates, Bekhiet gets a little closer to where he wants to be with his game.
”I have more momentum going into single states,” he said. “Last year, I made the round of 16s, but this year I want to go far. It’s important to me. The regular season, playing North and South and those guys, I have a lot of momentum and it’s a lot better this time. The matches aren’t as long.”
Bekhiet has hit more serves in practice, worked on his volleys and groundstrokes more than ever, and it has paid off handsomely.
”It’s not the winning or the losing that gives him confidence or takes it away,” Chirico said. “It’s if he puts the time in during practice, he’s going to have confidence during the match.”
Bekhiet has and it’s helped him to enjoy thoroughly his final year with the Ravens. His brothers are part of the singles lineup, and the team is off to a promising start that has been reinforced by its best finish at the MCT. On top of it all, at least until the state tournament starts, is the county championship.
”Going back to school, the first Robbinsville player to win the county tournament, it’s awesome,” Bekhiet said. “It’s my senior year. It’s amazing. I’m leaving a legacy behind for someone to try to beat it.”