Mars, top player enjoying a step up in competition

Had the Mars Area boys tennis team remained in Class AA there was a chance the Fightin’ Planets could have challenged Sewickley Academy for the WPIAL team championship and may have had enough depth to end the Panthers’ 11-year reign.

That was before the PIAA looked at the numbers for its biennial realignment and moved Mars up to Class AAA and into Section 2 with tennis-rich schools such as North Allegheny and Pine-Richland.

“It’s definitely a step up in competition and we’ve enjoyed it so far,” Mars coach Chris Knauff said. “We have to be ready for every match and there are a lot of good teams that we’re playing, so we’ve enjoyed that.”

Mars (2-1) brought back its entire starting lineup from 2014, including No. 1 singles player Josh Raymundo, who is currently the No. 6 junior in the state according to tennisrecruiting.net.

Had the Planets stayed in Class AA, he would have likely been the top seed in the WPIAL singles tournament, especially after defending champion Luke Ross of Sewickley Academy did not return from a prep school in Florida in time to compete in the section singles qualifier.

Being a top seed might have been nice, but for Raymundo, that isn’t the ultimate goal.

“Double-A was fun, but I know a lot of these guys and they’re my friends and the competition [in Class AAA] is so much better,” Raymundo said. “I knew I was going to have a tougher match and tougher matches are a lot more fun.”

It certainly was tougher as Raymundo, the No. 4 seed, lost to Fox Chapel’s fifth-seeded Siddharth Rajupet, the No. 9 junior in the state, 10-7, in a pro-set-format in the second round of the WPIAL Class AAA singles tournament on Tuesday at The Club in Monroeville.

“It was basically a match of who served better and who could hold their serve and he broke me quickly right off the bat,” Raymundo said. “Other than that, it was just his serve and I couldn’t do

anything about it.”

Though Raymundo is used to playing against stiff competition at the USTA level, the rest of his teammates also had to go through a quick transition as they went from WPIAL finalist to just another team in the mix. Despite that, the team already has a signature win against North Allegheny that is fueling the Planets as they head toward the stretch run before the team tournament begins at the end of the month.

“They all improved from last year and they seemed to adapt pretty quickly,” Knauff said. “We have a lot of rained out matches and … you just have to try to work on your game and try to improve, especially in doubles, and it’s definitely a work in progress but it’s going well so far.”