NO BACKING DOWN: Princeton High boys’ tennis player Melvin Huang hits a backhand last week at the Mercer County Tournament. Senior star Huang won the title at second singles as PHS finished second in the team standings at the event. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

True to form, Princeton High boys’ tennis player Melvin Huang did it the hard way as he took a grueling route to winning the second singles title at the Mercer County Tournament last Thursday.
In the morning, senior star and top-seeded Huang outlasted Shritan Gopu of WW/P-South in a semifinal contest decided by a 7-point match tiebreak as he won 5-7, 7-6, [7-3].

“I wasn’t focused on the final, I was just focusing on every point,” said Huang, known for his relentless work ethic and propensity for grinding out wins. “I tried flattening the ball out a little more, making him take lower. He starts cramping up so that also helped. As I started gathering momentum, I tried to focus on finishing the match. I was getting satisfied getting to 5-all and then getting to a tiebreak.”

Facing second-seeded Rishabh Ramaswamy in the final on a grandstand court at the Mercer County Park Tennis Facility, Huang jumped out to a 5-0 lead and hung on to win the first set 6-4. In the second set, Huang got hampered by cramps himself as he started to limp around the court, stretching against the fence between points.

Gutting it out, Huang took the second set 6-3 and lay prone on the court for minutes afterward as he recovered from the effort.

“After the first set, I was playing my game and I started cramping,” said Huang. “It was just adapt — I had to play without moving too much.”

In reflecting on his second straight title at second singles, Huang relished the journey to the crown.

“The matches along the way meant more to me than the title,” said Huang. “I have done this before but I don’t want to say it is not special.”

Diversifying his game helped Huang get some quick points on volleys against Ramaswamy.

“In the last year, I started playing more doubles matches,” said Huang. “I got more comfortable moving in, being more aggressive and just finishing points at net.”

PHS head coach Sarah Hibbert was not surprised by Huang’s gutsy effort.

“Melvin was in agony in the second match but he fought through it,” said Hibbert. “We have said this since his freshman year, he is one of the hardest working guys out there. He always goes for that one extra ball. He keeps fighting. He was really feeling it, trying to conserve his energy, trying to pick his spots and go for the ones he could. He wasn’t able to serve that way he wanted to. His game depends on his wheels yet he was able to fall back and just gut it out.”

Showing some guts in fighting back from a tough morning that saw PHS fall in four of five semis, the Tigers won three of its four third-place matches.

“It was a real tough morning, there were a couple of third set tiebreaks that didn’t go our way,” said Hibbert, whose team just missed winning a second straight county crown as it took second in the team standings with 23.5 points, 0.5 points behind champion WW/P-North. “There were long matches. They really did bounce back well. They all came back, they all fought really hard. We took a bunch of third places.”

Sophomore Garrett Mathewson took third at first singles, displaying some superb tennis along the way.

“Garrett had a great tournament too, unfortunately he didn’t start off great in his semifinal match,” said Hibbert. “In the third place match, he was down 1-4 and fought back and won. I don’t know what the final score was, I think it was four and one. He fought back and won like 13 out of 14 games after that.”

The first doubles pair of sophomore Aashil Patel and senior Aman Kapur and the second doubles duo of junior Shaan Zaveri and freshman Tacto Yamada fought hard in taking third in their flights.

“Aashil and Aman had a tough semifinal, they started off great and then one or two things didn’t go their way,” said Hibbert. “Unfortunately with a third set tiebreak, you can either win it impressively or it can sneak away from you. They were able come back and have a pretty dominating third place match. It was the same thing with second doubles. It was one ball here, it was one ball there in that first match but they came back and dominated their third place match.”

While Hibbert was disappointed to see the Tigers fall just short of a title repeat, advancing to the semis in all five flights of the competition was a good sign.

“There were four teams within two points of each other, I think this is one of the closest top four in years,” said Hibbert of the nail-biting finish which saw WW/P-South take third with 23 points and Pennington coming in fourth at 22. “Getting through in all five flights sets a tone that we can all count on each other on any given day.”

Battling hard at the MCT should set a good tone for PHS as it looks ahead to the upcoming New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) state team tournament.

“It is a tough area, there is a lot of really good schools here,” said Hibbert, whose team plays at Lawrence on May 1, hosts Steinert on May 3, and then plays at Robbinsville on May 7. “We are competitive, you win one day, you lose another day on any given day. It can come down to a tiebreak. We certainly have all of the pieces there. We opened the season really well. You just have to play your best tennis every day and that is hard for a long season. The pieces are definitely there and hopefully we can continue with a strong season.”

Huang, for his part, believes that PHS can finish strong this spring.

“We have a lot of good players at doubles who are really young but know how to hit the ball,” said Huang. “We have a good singles lineup. It is just solid all around. I think we can do some stuff.”