It was a showdown between two opponents who are very familiar with each other in the Men’s Singles final in city tennis tournament at Columbus North High School Wednesday.
Anthony Sanders and Bhavey Jain went back and forth throughout the match, but it was Sanders that got the edge over Jain 6-3, 7-5 to claim his second consecutive singles title.
Sanders, a former North tennis player, was a high school state quarterfinalist his senior year in 2014, and Jain will be a senior at North this year.
“I’ve played against (Jain) all the time in classes and stuff,” Sanders said. “You never know how he is going to play. He really stepped up the occasion tonight, for sure. It’s really fun. He’s a really great player. He works just as hard as anyone I know. It’s a good experience to go out there and see how much better he’s getting.”
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Sanders jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Jain came back to make it 5-3 before Sanders took the set by winning the next game.
In the second set, Sanders ran into a little bit of trouble. He led 4-1 until Jain won four straight games to lead 5-4, but Sanders won the final three games to clinch the match.
“(Jain) never quit during the match, and he came back,” Sanders said. “In the future, if he keeps playing, he’ll be a tough opponent.”
A few minutes later, Sanders was back on the court playing in the Men’s Open Doubles final with Columbus East tennis coach Matt Malinsky.
Sanders and Malinsky had control of the first set early on and led 5-4, but Michael Schoumacher and Daniel Frastaci won the last three games to steal the set. In the second set, Sanders and Malinsky won 6-1. In the third set supertiebreaker, Malinsky and Sanders prevailed 10-3 to claim the title.
Malinsky said he assumed Sanders already had a doubles partner this year, but then Sanders contacted him and asked him to be his partner, and Malinsky jumped at the opportunity.
“Being out here playing is a lot of fun,” Sanders said. “Matt and I work together, and we’re always like, ‘I wish we could play together,’ but we are always on opposite teams. It’s always a good experience to go out and play with a good friend of yours and win.”
In the Men’s 4.0 singles final, Debashish Acharya beat Kable Walton 6-3, 7-6 (5). In the Men’s 4.0 Doubles final, David Chader and Abhijit Dawle downed Arvay Atrum and Amirtanshu 6-0, 6-4. In the Mixed 4.0 Doubles final, Tony Gambaiani and Sally Pankratz topped Larry Husmann and Bev Chinn 6-1, 6-0.
In Mixed Open Doubles round robin, Earl Allen and Payton Haygood beat Jody Littrell and Paige Littrell 6-2, 6-4 to win the title. In the Women’s 4.0 Doubles round robin, Sylvie Bertin and Lisa Nelson defeated Annie Baugh and Kacey Moran 6-1, 6-1 to win the title.
In a Women’s Doubles round robin match, sisters Caroline Bell and Melissa Sanders topped Molly Crabtree and Karen Kelley 6-3, 6-0. Susan Barker and Dana Scott had beaten both of those teams and won the title.
