The first day of competition for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Men’s Tennis Individual Championships came to a close on Friday afternoon at four different locations. All championships are scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The 1A Championship, contested at Cary Tennis Park, will resume with the championship matches in both the singles and doubles competitions. In the singles match, Eno River’s Nathan Mermeo, who won a doubles title last year, will face two-time defending champ Nikhil Deshpande from Langtree Charter.

In the doubles match, Elkin’s Aidan and Connor Ballard will face Prahalad Srinivisan and Cooper Fielding from Triangle Math & Science.

The 2A Championship, at Ting Park in Holly Springs, was interrupted by a mid afternoon rain shower and moved to Cary Tennis Park to complete the quarterfinals. On Saturday, the semifinals will being and Research Triangle’s Matthew Southern and Jackson Doyle will play NCSSM (Durham)’s Aryan Vinay and Sid Gupta while Lincoln Charter’s Noah Cochran and Clark Mullen will face Franklin Academy’s Derek Shute and Nick DeLiso.

In singles, Greene Central’s William Drake will play R-S Central’s Billy Mac Clement and East Burke’s Luke Borders will play defending champ Alphonso Sison from Franklin Academy.

The 3A Championship, at Burlington Tennis Center, will continue Saturday morning with the semifinals. In doubles, First Flight’s Anthony Vucinovic and J.J. Woerner will face Hickory’s Graham and Clint Powers. Graham Powes won the doubles title last year with Griffin Lovern. In the other semifinal, Lake Norman Charter’s Charlie Schild and Tejas Sridhar will match up with Snyder and Collins Pearson from Fike.

In the singles bracket, South Central’s Shaw Akula will play Shiv Patel form South Point and Derek Hinkle from Smoky Mountain will play Terry Sanford’s Drew Hedgecoe, the two-time defending champ.  

The 4A Championship, at the Millbrook Exchange, will resume with the semifinals on Saturday morning as well. In the doubles bracket, Green Hope’s Brij Bhatt and Aidan Xu will play Hough’s Jesus Espinoza and Jackson Davis while Providence’s Grant Partridge and Daniel Rohlman will play Green Hope’s Stephen Gervase and Vivek Indiamuri.

In singles, Apex’s Ethan Garcia will play Providence’s Jack Dimenna and Northwest Guilford’s Eshaan Dahadghav will play Green Hope’s Jimin Jung.  

Source: highschoolot.com