SARATOGA SPRINGS – Blue Streak history was made at the recent Section II boys tennis tournament.
Entering the competition on May 24 as the No. 1 seeded doubles team, senior David Romano and eighth-grader Nick Grosso went all the way, finally besting the team of Govind Chari and Shamanth Murundi of Bethlehem to become the Section II doubles champions. Capping off an exceptional 18-0 season for the Saratoga Tennis program, Romano and Grosso helped bring home the program’s first ever doubles title. This comes off of the program taking its first-ever sectional team title in 2016. From this win, they will move on to compete in the State-level competition at Flushing Meadows, the same site as the US Open.
Both Romano and Grosso have been in the Saratoga Tennis program since their seventh grade years. This was their first year working together as a doubles team. As a senior and an eighth grader, they are working with an age-disparity that they say is very much not common in varsity tennis.
“I’ve never seen it, in my six years,” Romano said about the age gap. “It works out, cause we both know and respect each other’s games a lot, and he’s one of the hardest workers that I’ve known, and I think together we make a great team.”
“Seeing David out on the court when I was little, you know, it just kept me moving,” Grosso said. “Kept me going, kept me trying every day to be a player like him some day. I think that’s what kept me going, and that’s where I’m at right now.”
Coach Tim O’Brien singled-out the team’s ability to communicate on the court as one of the reasons that they have been so successful. Romano attributes this to their knowledge of each other’s styles, including their strengths and weaknesses on the court, allowing them to cover for each other fairly quickly.
“There have been plenty of times when I shouted for help and he was right there,” Romano said.
Romano will be attending Brown University in the fall after graduating. While there is a very strong tennis team at Brown, Romano was hesitant to say that he would be up to the task of making the team. He does, however, intend to offer his services to help the team in whatever way he is able. Grosso, meanwhile, will be moving up from middle school to high school in the fall, and is not feeling too much pressure about it. Given his experience with high schoolers during his two seasons on the tennis team, he feels confident in his ability to make the transition smoothly. If anything, he expects the change to do wonders for his game.
Elsewhere at the Section II championships, singles players Seungmin Kim and Max Lee made it to the quarterfinals.
“The key to it I think has just been having a foundation of great kids and leaders, on the court and off the court,” O’Brien said about what has made this season’s team so dominant. “It begins with them.”
Photos by Photoandgraphic.com.
