By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Chris Hoeland and Kamala Kannan met for the first time when they were about to play their first doubles match together.
Five matches later the two were Men’s Open Doubles champions of the James E. Cryan Memorial Tennis Tournament.
“I grew up around the tournament and watched and played a number of years,” said Hoeland, a Princeton High School graduate and current Princeton resident. “I had never made it past the semis before in the Cryan. I always felt I could have done better than I did.
“This time I didn’t have a partner until the last second. Ilya (Shatashvili) and I usually play doubles together but this year he said he wanted to focus on singles. The person who wound up being my partner, Kamala, had also asked Ilya to play doubles. He said why don’t you two play together? We had never met until just before our first match.”
Hoeland and Kannan entered the tournament as the No. 4 seeds. They knocked off the top-seeded team of Timothy Chang and Daniel Chang, 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals and then topped third-seeded Freddy Marcinkowski and Brant Switzler, 7-6, 7-6 in the championship match.
“I have not competed much lately and it has made me realize how much I love coming out to the courts and competing,” said Hoeland, who is the Development and Communications Coordinator for NJTL of Trenton. “I think this will get me in that mindset of wanting to compete more.
“The one thing I was saying all week was how great it was to see so many familiar faces and people grew I up knowing. That alone makes the Cryan a fun tournament to participate in. If you can get a win in the tournament that makes it even better.”
Kannan, a Newtown Square, Pa. resident, reached the finals of the Men’s Open Singles, where he fell to second-seeded Gary Kushnirovich, 6-4, 6-2. In the Women’s Open Singles final, Brianna Shvets of Pennington, the top seed, got past third-seeded Vanessa Petrini in the finals, 7-6, 7-6.
The Women’s Open Doubles title went to Alexis Dorr and Paloma Escobedo, while the Mixed Open Doubles title went to Annie Dimuro and Alex Fioravante. Other winners in the tournament were Daniel Bushamuka (Men’s A Singles), Michael Kara (Men’s B Singles), Nikki Stekrova (Women’s A Singles), Jackson Birnie (Women’s B Singles), Patrycia Przystasz and Nikki Stekrova (Women’s A Doubles), Mary Pieretti and Cheryl Vecchiolla (Women’s B Doubles), Sidharth Dhawan and Lenny Mesonas (Men’s A Doubles), Goutam Roy and Sid Sinha (Men’s B Doubles), Christina Contrafatto and Michael Ehrenberg (Mixed A Doubles), and Ai Kagawa and Jigar Shah (Mixed B Doubles).
For Hoeland, the chance to get back on the court and compete was an opportunity to get the competitive juices flowing again. His job keeps him around tennis but not in the competitive way he was used to at PHS and then Washington University in St. Louis.
“I have been doing development for NJTL of Trenton for just over two years now,” Hoeland said. “We’re working on programs and organizing programs and now we’re trying to help raise money and organize events.
“Our program provides tennis and educational opportunities to kids in Trenton, Ewing, Hamilton and Lawrence and other areas. We use tennis as the hook and get kids interested. I have not strayed away at all from tennis. I am still plugging away and hopefully making a difference.”
His works keeps him busy so Hoeland doesn’t get out on the court as often as he did in the past. But he obviously been able to keep his game at a high enough level to claim a Cryan title.
“There is the opportunity to play after work sometimes,” Hoeland said. “I also try to get out and play some other sports or work out when I can. It’s always fun to get out and play tennis. The Cryan was so much fun and it was nice to finally win one.”
