Joseph Kloepfer fought through a tough third-set supertiebreaker to prevail with a 6-2, 3-6, (10-5) win over Columbus North teammate Jacob Shinkle to claim the Boys 16 singles championship at the city tennis tournament Sunday morning at North.
“It feels pretty exciting being in my fourth year in this (city) tournament,” Kloepfer said. “I’ve always went far in these because I’ve played a lot of my friends. I just feel like it’s an exciting experience every time before tennis season to get back in the habit.”
After Kloepfer, who will be a junior at North, captured the first set, Shinkle tied it back up in the second set. The third-set supertiebreaker was tied 3-3 when the players switched ends. Kloepfer then took command to finish the match on a 7-2 run.
“In the tiebreaker, I knew that if I just kept getting balls past the service line over and over and over again, hopefully, he would eventually miss into the net or out,” Kloepfer said. “So my goal in the tiebreaker was to just be consistent because it’ll get tiring for both people, and I felt like if I could be consistent, I could outlast him.”
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In the Boys 14 singles final, incoming North freshman Samuel Song defeated Darren Li 6-3, 6-0. In the Girls 14 singles final, incoming North freshman Siri Poludasu topped Anna Tipton 6-1, 6-0. In the Boys 12 singles final, Issa Imanaka won against Teddy Littrell 6-3, 6-4.
In the Girls 16 singles final, Elle Ford outlasted Anisha Vuligonda 6-2, 6-4. The match was closer than the final score, but Ford was able to win on the very long rallies.
Ford, who will be a sophomore at Southwestern (Hanover), said her backhand helped her out in the victory.
“I also served very well and had a lot of good aces,” Ford said. “I played pretty consistently and it helped me pull through in the end.”
Quarterfinals in the men’s singles begins tonight, and the semifinals in the men’s singles and doubles are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively, on Tuesday. Finals in the men’s singles and doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles are scheduled for Wednesday. There is no women’s singles division this year.
