Locals fine-tune games in early season tournament action
Fairview’s Sundaresan taking advantage of opportunity at No. 1 singles
Adhrit Sundaresan may only be a freshman, but he’s already proven his stock among Fairview tennis’ ranks.
As senior Caden Bell sits out with a hip injury, Sundaresan has quickly risen to the top to claim the No. 1 singles spot and enjoyed a good amount of success in Saturday’s varsity tournament at Fairview High School.
He believes the fierce competition for singles spots among his teammates only makes him that much better of a player as he introduces himself to the high school stage.
“It’s pretty hard, actually, but I enjoyed it a lot,” he said. “I’m glad to get the good competition in my matches. There are a lot of good players. There are a lot of seniors, so there are a lot of challenging matches that I have to go through as a freshman.”
Sundaresan began his day with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Heritage Christian’s ace, and hopes he can help propel the Knights to a team state title.
He’s already off to the right start, and possesses quite the arsenal to work with.
“I think I’m pretty consistent,” he said. “Sometimes, that does it for a lot of players, putting a lot of balls back, making them frustrated, finding their weakness. I feel like also having a lot of variety is good so you use the right tool whenever you want to play.”
Striving for greatness
A trip to last year’s Class 5A state tournament only sharpened Broomfield senior Kai Trujillo for his senior year.
His six-set, three-win performance at the tournament held at Monarch High School on Saturday proved as much.
“I felt good going into it and I was really excited to play this morning because this will set the tone for the rest of the season,” Trujillo said. “Today, I tried putting a lot of pressure on all the opponents but I think it was just my practice habits.”
In preparation for his final season, Trujillo spent the offseason playing as much as he could and practicing with his mom.
“I’m trying to work my way into the net more, so adding more kick to my serves, opening up the court a bit more,” he said.
Three for all
Trujillo wasn’t the only local player to win out at MHS on Saturday.
Niwot sophomore Charlie Kirtland, who’s reprising his role at 3 singles, breezed through his three matches without dropping a single set. He relied on a consistent serve and strong backhand to cruise to victory as he looks to amend his past mistakes in his second season.
“It’s definitely my backhand,” Kirtland said. “My forehand is better but my backhand definitely is the stronger part because it’s usually instinct to hit to your weaker side, which is usually your backhand. I work on that more than anything so it ends up being a really big weapon.”
Kirtland believed he struggled to adjust to different playing styles throughout his freshman campaign, but said he’s gotten more comfortable through summer play. He hopes to come out more aggressive this year.
Stepping up his game
Monarch sophomore Isaac Anderson may not have had the perfect ride on Saturday, but with every point, he displayed tremendous growth from someone who a year earlier played at No. 1 doubles on junior varsity.
On varsity at 3 singles, he won three of four matches as he relied on his serve, his forehand and flattening out the ball to help him succeed.
“I feel like I put a lot of work into it so I think I deserve it. At the same time, it definitely feels good,” Anderson said. “I needed to work really hard if I wanted to be high up on the team.”