WIAA State Tennis: Red Raiders Open With Strong Showing

Though Wauwatosa East won’t be joining the festivities next week at the WIAA team state tennis tournament, coach Glen Slonac has plenty of reasons to smile about the performance of his squad. 

Slonac’s Red Raiders picked up opening-round victories from Nick Skanavis in singles and the pairing of Leon Gilman and Tracy Johnson in doubles at in the opening round of the state individual tennis tournament at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison on Thursday.

“Nick showed a lot of consistency and served well, which are things he will need to do (Friday),” Slonac said.  “(Gilman and Johnson) had a tough matchup against a well coached team so they needed to play their best tennis.”

Skanavis looked cool and collected on the court against freshman Sam Berman of Nicolet.  The senior swept the first set, then lost just two games in the second set.

“I was a little tight to start, but it was tough to play a freshman who always lobs it deep,” Skanavis said.  “I was able to hang in there when (Berman) made mistakes.  That was the difference.”

Skanavis advances to face seeded Ben Klein of Brookfield East in the second round.  Klein made short work Waukesha South junior Isaac Jordan (6-1, 6-0) to open his 2011 tournament run.

“I lost to (Jordan) earlier in the year, but didn’t play as well as I should have,” Klein said.  “Today I came to play and was very focused.”

The winner of the Skanavis-Klein morning singles match will likely see defending state champion Alex Jesse of Homestead in the third round.  The tournament’s top-seeded player will face Brookfield Central senior Jack Michael in round two after Michael ousted Perry Campbell of Beloit Memorial, 6-1, 6-3.

In his first appearance at the state tournament, Whitefish Bay’s Ben Foran cruised in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, over Tony Mirasola of La Crosse Central.  Foran was well-prepared for his trip to Madison, thanks to tips from his teammate, four-year state tournament participant Jack Larsen. Larsen received a bye and begins play Friday.

“(Larsen’s) experience really came in handy,” Foran said.  “He had a lot of advice for me and I just tried to soak it all in.”

Other Division 1 singles winners include Tim Corwin of Brookfield East, Brendan Barker of Nicolet and Whitefish Bay’s Wentong Zhang.  Corwin dumped Jaren Sternard of Green Bay Preble 6-2, 6-1, Barker eliminated Chris Guzman of Waukesha West 6-3, 6-2, and Zhang disposed of West Bend East’s Jake Ledger.

In Division 1 doubles, Gilman and Johnson were one of the day’s big surprises, upsetting the seeded duo of Tommy Arnette and Jordan Verbauwhede of Manitowoc Lincoln, 6-1, 7-5 (8).  Gilman and Johnson got into the field as special qualifiers, and now have a chance to make significant progress in the doubles field.

In one of the day’s best matches special qualifiers Troy Holland and Adam Hurrle of Milwaukee Marquette needed two set tiebreakers, but managed to upset the seeded Brookfield East pairing of Chris Anguil and Ben Stewart, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5).

Another team picked to join this week’s field, Ken Reichert and Calvin Wagg of Brookfield Central, is staying around for another day after knocking out Green Bay East duo Brandon King and Nick Matzke 6-4, 6-1.

Other doubles winners included seniors Dan Mackett and Cal Hilkert of Brookfield East.  Mackett and Hilkert coasted 6-2, 6-2 over De Pere’s undefeated pair of Casey Brice and Michael Trainor.