HS Boys Tennis: WW-PS, Hopewell Valley win sectional titles

The Hopewell Valley boys tennis team after defeating Rumson-Fair Haven in the Central Group II final. (Contributed Photo)

PRINCETON — The West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys tennis team won the Central Group III sectional title by handing Princeton High its first loss of the season.

The second-seeded Pirates swept the three singles flights on their way to a 4-1 victory over the top-seeded Tigers on Tuesday afternoon.

Kokulnath Ramasamy, Shritan Gopu and Karthik Buddhidnesh were all winners at singles for South (26-1), which not only avenged an earlier loss to the Tigers (18-1) but became the first team to even record a team point against Princeton. The Tigers had won all 18 of their previous dual meets by a 5-0 score.

In first singles. Ramasamy won a tough match over Garrett Mathewson after he dropped the first set, 5-7. In the second set, Ramasamy came away with a 7-5 decision and then took the point for his team by winning the superset tiebreaker, 11-9. Gopu won in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, while Buddhidnesh also came from a set down to win in a superset tiebreak over Andrew Kuo, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5 (10-4).

Rohit Datta and Richard Hao were also winners at second doubles.

Aashil Patel and Aman Kapur provided Princeton with its lone victory at second doubles.

Central Group II

Hopewell Valley 3, Rumson-Fair Haven 2

RUMSON — In a big shocker, the third-seeded Bulldogs (17-8) swept the doubles flights and got a victory at first singles from Bradley Deeds to upset the top-seeded Bulldogs (14-4).

Deeds got things off to a good start for Hopewell when he took a 6-0, 6-1 straight set victory at first singles, but with the Bulldogs dropping points at second and third singles, the doubles matches decided the sectional champion.

At first doubles, Kaito Mahon and Andrew Hou won a superset tiebreaker 7-5, 5-7 (11-9). At second doubles, Zachary Weisenfeld and Om Sharma also went to a superset tiebreak and were victorious by the score of 4-6, 6-3 (10-6).