Top High School Tennis Stories of the Year - Part 2


As I said yesterday, it was an excellent year for Section 2 High School tennis.  A big highlight was Masami Surisawa winning the backdraw at High School States.  No area Sophomore had that kind of success at States since 2007 when Albany Academy’s Matt Kandath won Boy’s States (when he was the youngest player to win States).  Masami not only won the Consolation draw, but he got to avenge some previous losses.  Earlier this year, Masami lost to Gurv Suri 2-6, 7-6(2), 10-5 at a Level 5 tournament in January.  This time Masami took the third set tiebreaker 12-10.  In the finals, he avenged another prior tournament loss when he played Anthony Markello - a Senior from Olean, NY.  Markello beat Masami 8-4 when they played back in February 2021 in a USTA tournament at Binghamton Tennis Center.  Revenge is sweet!



Bethlehem Tennis is riding high this year.  Both the Bethlehem Boys (Coach - Steve Smith) and the Bethlehem Girls (Coach - Scott George) won their respective Class AA Team Sectional Championships.  

"On October 14th the Varsity Girls defeated an outstanding Saratoga team in the Class AA Section II final - capturing our first sectional title since 2016!  On October 23rd, the Varsity Girls' played a regional match for the right to qualify for the NYS tournament against the champion from Section 3 (Fayetteville-Manlius of Syracuse), who was also undefeated." (Coach George).  Bethlehem won the match 6-1.  Unfortunately, at States Bethlehem's run ended when they ran into a powerhouse team from Syosset in the State Semi-Finals.  




"Our Varsity Boys' completed an undefeated 13-0 regular season and captured the Suburban Council league title - something we had not done since 2019. Our squad continued to team Sectionals, defeating Saratoga 9-0 in the Semi-Finals and defeating Shaker 7-2 in the Finals to capture our 4th consecutive Class AA Section II title!"  The Boys advanced to Regionals where they defeated Fayetteville-Manlius to earn a chance to play for the Championship at the National Tennis Center on Saturday.  GO EAGLES!


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