Predicting who might win the boys tennis championships -- and those who could surprise
The N.C. High School Athletic Association individual boys tennis championships are this weekend. For most classes, the first and second round are on Friday with semifinals and finals scheduled for Saturday morning (1A, which has half as many players, only needs to play a state title on Saturday).
Below, we listed favorites and dark horses for all eight individual crowns being handed out on Saturday. There were four favorites for 4A and 3A competitions for singles and doubles each, while 2A got three and 1A had two. Each competition got one "dark horse" pick.
Many of these players are candidates for our all-state teams that are released a few weeks after the regular season. There's a first, second, and third team of 12 players each, plus an honorable mention team of six.
4A
Singles
Favorite #1 — Jimin Jung, Green Hope
Favorite #2 — Ford Evans, Clayton
Favorite #3 — Jack Dimenna, Providence
Favorite #4 — Eshaan Dabadghav, Northwest Guilford
Dark Horse — Ethan Garcia, Apex
Doubles
Favorite #1 — Grant Partridge & Daniel Rohlman, Providence
Favorite #2 — Jesus Espinoza & Jackson Davis, Hough
Favorite #3 — Stephen Gervase & Vivek Indlamur, Green Hope
Favorite #4 — Cameron Lange & Kyle Lange, Leesville Road
Dark Horse — Brij Bhatt & Aidan Xu, Green Hope
3A
Singles
Favorite #1 — Drew Hedgecoe, Terry Sanford
Favorite #2 — Shiv Patel, South Point
Favorite #3 — Theo Buchholtz, Carrboro
Favorite #4 — Logan Thoma, Ledford
Dark Horse — Shaw Akula, South Central
Doubles
Favorite #1 — Graham Powers & Clint Powers, Hickory
Favorite #2 — Charlie Scild & Tejas Sridhar, Lake Norman Charter
Favorite #3 — Zach Blizzard & Grant Euler, Durham School of the Arts
Favorite #4 — Anthony Vucinovic & J.J. Woerner, First Flight
Dark Horse — Fionn Kuo & Lev Bearman, Cedar Ridge
2A
Singles
Favorite #1 — Alphonso Sison, Franklin Academy
Favorite #2 — Billy Mac Clement, R-S Central
Favorite #3 — William Drake, Greene Central
Dark Horse — Luke Borders, East Burke
Doubles
Favorite #1 — Derek Shute & Nick DeLisio, Franklin Academy
Favorite #2 — A.J. Jarrell & Gray Davis, Salisbury
Favorite #3 — Blake Bradley & Rafa Kohn, Owen
Dark Horse — Matthew Southern & Jackson Doyle, Research Triangle
1A
Singles
Favorite #1 — Nikhil Deshpande, Langtree Charter
Favorite #2 — Nathan Bermeo, Eno River Academy
Dark Horse — Tyler Hinsaw, Voyager Academy
Doubles
Favorite #1 — Prahalad Srinivisan & Cooper Fielding, Triangle Math & Science
Favorite #2 — Aidan Ballard & Connor Ballard, Elkin
Dark Horse — Julian Monzavifar & Josh Banchik, NCSSM-Morganton
