Pairing works like a charm
Polina Radchenko and Rylee Braeden reconnected at just the right time. • First, the two played together in a tennis club, then Braeden moved. Then it was Radchenko, leaving Langham Creek near the end of the fall semester for Cypress Falls. Braeden already was there and the two figured they’d give it a shot as playing partners. • It worked. • The pair dominated competition and powered its way to the state tournament. There, the two reached the championship match but lost to a pair from Midland. • “It was really fun,” Radchenko said. “We didn’t lose a lot and it was fun playing with Rylee.”
Q: How did you two actually form your doubles team?
Radchenko: “I just moved into the school because we got a new house and I asked her. I knew she was a really, really good player. In the first tournament, we played really, really well, and we got used to each other.”
Braeden: “It was our first school tournament. It wasn’t so much the hardest but one of the most challenging matches we faced the whole season. We made it to the finals, and in the finals match it was close but we won it. After that, that’s when we knew. We figured out how to win when it was hard.”
Q: What made the two of you fit together?
Braeden: “She’s taller, she has a bigger serve and she’s better at the baseline. I’m better at the net, but she’s solid as well.”
Radchenko: “She’s a lefty and I’m a righty. That works — she would take one side of the court and I would take the other. That way, we both played with our dominant forehand side.
“She’s pretty chill and relaxed, so
there wasn’t a lot of pressure.”
Q: Do you favor singles or doubles over the other?
Radchenko: “For doubles, I guess it depends on how I work with my partner. I worked with Rylee well. So with singles or doubles, it didn’t really matter then.”
Q: Which was the toughest or most memorable match you played this season?
Radchenko: “Probably either the state semifinals or the finals. Those were the biggest matches we played. In the semifinal, I just remember thinking, ‘We have to do this.’ We were in that third set and just had to somehow find a way.
“In the final, I remember telling myself that we had nothing to lose and just go for it. We fought as hard as we could. We just didn’t have enough.”
Braeden: “Definitely the state final. In district, we didn’t have a problem. In region, not really a problem, either. It wasn’t until state that we had those close matches — those three sets. And then we lost the final.
“Out of the three matches, (the final) was actually the best we played. In the first match, she was nervous because she had never played in front of that many people before and the pressure.
“Then in the second match, I was playing off. In the third match, we were playing really well.”
Q: Do you two have any routines or superstitions?
Braeden: “I broke two of my strings the weekend before (state) and they were on my newer rackets so I had to play with my older racket for the first match. I’d been practicing with the older racket so I stuck with it.
“So since we won with that racket, I had to keep playing with it. I felt like I was playing better with the older one and I didn’t want to jinx it by playing with a different one.”