By Justin Feil, Contributor
Andrew Henderson and David Spinrad had the chance to play singles last year, but they are enjoying playing doubles together on a more successful team this year., The seniors at first doubles have helped the Hillsborough High School boys tennis team to a 6-2 start, already doubling last year’s win total for the Raiders., “Unfortunately last year, I don’t think either of us were very strong at the singles position, so to be honest we were excited to see how we would fit into the doubles ladder,” said Henderson, who played second singles last year. “I played doubles my sophomore year and I had a winning record. So far, we’re 5-1 or 6-1. I think we definitely have our momentum going so it’ll be interesting to see how we do later in the year.”, Spinrad played third singles last year, but his game is translating well for doubles in his first year of playing doubles at the varsity level. He did play doubles on JV two years ago., “As a singles player, obviously the game is really different, but playing singles, you develop more skill sets that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t play singles,” Spinrad said. “Both playing singles, me for a year and Andrew Henderson for a year, I think it helped us develop skills that really coordinate well into doubles, like being able to watch rackets and being able to predict that the other team is planning on doing, and using that to our advantage., “I like playing doubles because I have a big serve,” he added. “It’s fun for me to be able to hit my serve and then Andrew has me at net. Having that one-two punch, it’s fun to play with, and it also works. I also like the communication aspect of doubles. You always have someone to watch your back and you watch their back. That’s a cool aspect of playing tennis as a team.”, Above them in a new-look singles lineup that has helped bolster the team. Alan Dogan graduated from the top of last year’s singles lineup, so the Raiders now have three new singles players this year, two freshmen and a transfer. Max Kim has taken the top spot in the lineup as a freshman., “He’s talented,” said Hillsborough head coach Larry Johnson. “He’s all-around. He has just about every shot in the book. The thing he probably does best is he’s got power. Once he figures out how to use that power on the high school level against other talented players, he’s going to be really good. He can hit the ball big. He’s also athletic. He’s a talented player.”, At second singles, the Raiders picked up a transfer, Kritik Kotharu. The junior played previously at North Brunswick and J.P. Stevens, and he’s been welcomed to the Hillsborough lineup., “He’s another smart player,” Johnson said. “He’s got really, really clean ground strokes, plays good defense and really knows how to figure out what his opponent is doing. Even if he has to change something that’s not something he normally does, he can do it. He’s smart enough to do that. And I like his court demeanor. Even though he may say he’s nervous, he appears to be calm which is good body language to present when he’s playing. I like his on-court demeanor.”, At third singles is another freshman. Shrish Shenoy is a player that Johnson knew like the other two singles players was coming, but didn’t know how he would fit in their ladder. He edged Henderson in their best-of-three challenge matches., “He’s also a talented player,” Johnson noted. “You can tell he spent some time and put some work in on the tennis court. He has to learn to be a little patient with his points, and he’ll continue to do well for us.”, The Raiders complete their team with a new doubles tandem. Tyler Vu and Shibi Balamurgan both played doubles for the Raiders varsity last year, but they had different partners. Balamurgan’s partner left, and Vu’s former partner Nimish Mishra is playing doubles on JV. Vu and Balamurgan are learning how to play together., “They’re still figuring things out,” Johnson said. “They’re still figuring out how to work together as partners also.”, The doubles teams haven’t had a lot of practice time due to inclement weather along with a hectic season schedule that has them playing on almost any good-weather day. It hasn’t left much time to practice, but they are sorting through their strengths., “One of Andrew’s biggest strengths is his consistency,” Spinrad said. “As a singles player, he developed this ability to hit pretty neutral ground strokes and deep returns cross-court. That ability to be consistent and have a really nice bite to his ball have given us the opportunity to be more aggressive at the net. With Andrew, in a lot of ways he’s automatic. There are shots that you can just expect him to do very, very well with. And other shots that are harder, that would force errors on other people, Andrew manages to get back into a pretty good position. He’s consistent and all of his balls are strong.”, Said Henderson: “I think definitely our net game and our baseline game is strong. Really wherever we are in the doubles match, we’re going to have some shots we’re comfortable with and can hit really well. I don’t know if other doubles teams can say that. That’s my biggest strength and I think that’s David’s strength too.”, The two are a good combination even if they don’t get a lot of time to practice together, but they have made up for it with solid communication and trust in each other. They have known each other for a long time, and they are making the most of playing together as seniors., “David and Andrew are both still figuring each other out,” Johnson said. “They’re both outstanding tennis players, but they’re still figuring out what each one does well in tennis matches. Fortunately they’re smart kids and communicate well with each other so they’re figuring it out. It’s tough to figure it out while they’re playing. It would be good to go in with a plan, and that’s what we don’t really have yet because of lack of time to prepare.”, They are relying on their experience as they go forward. While this is Spinrad’s first year of varsity doubles, he picked up doubles experience on JV. Henderson played doubles on varsity as a sophomore with Dale Babey., “It was definitely helpful,” Henderson said. “It’d be much tougher if I had to go into the season playing doubles never having played doubles before. I definitely learned strategies and how to communicate with a partner my sophomore year. All those skills made it much easier to transition to this year with a new partner. I think it definitely helped out.”, The two hope to have an even better knowledge of what they need to do to win as the Raiders head into the Somerset County Tournament. Hillsborough opens play Friday at Green Knolls. The tournament concludes Sunday., “We’re excited heading into counties because a lot of the teams we would face there, we’ve faced already,” Spinrad said. “As our 6-2 record explains, we’re in a much better place than we were last year. Based off that and based off how well we’re performing in each of our flights, I think we have a pretty good shot at counties, and I think we’re all excited.”, Montgomery goes in as the overwhelming team favorite, and even getting one flight off them will be tough, according to Johnson. The counties will give Hillsborough a chance to confirm how much it has improved since last year. Their first doubles may have the best chance at a deep run., “We were able to beat first doubles on Pingry which is a very big rival of ours,” Henderson said. “We have not played Montgomery yet, but it’ll definitely be exciting. We hope to play them. We’re winning our matches for the most part. Our only loss is to Westfield. I think we’re pretty comfortable with each other. We know how each other play and we communicate well with each other.”, Added Spinrad: “For me and Andrew to improve, we’re definitely focusing on starting off strong. There were a few matches where we took a while to get into the match and stay consistent and hit our shots. That’s one of biggest weaknesses right now is not getting into matches quickly enough. We’re working on that as we move forward.”, Moving forward is a theme for the entire team. Hillsborough has a brighter outlook after a strong start to the season, and Johnson thinks they can play even better. The Raiders have the second half of the season beginning with the county tournament to showcase their improvements., “We’re off to a great start,” Henderson said. “Hopefully we can keep that momentum going. We hope to have a winning record at the end of the season. It looks like that will happen if we just keep going with how we’re doing. We also have goals of beating some of the teams we lost to last year. For example, we lost to Bridgewater once, we lost to Hunterdon Central and so far we’re beating those teams this year. Hopefully we can extend that to other teams we play in the future.”
