Kadyrov breaks through for Vernon Hills
It’s been as elusive as winning the lottery — but finally Vernon Hills hit the jackpot.
The Cougars are sending their first tennis player to the state tournament next week after sophomore Ismail Kadyrov won his qualifying match Friday afternoon in straight sets at the Vernon Hills Athletic Complex and extended the season one more week for coach Doug Gerber.
“The drought is finally over,” said Gerber, who guided the Cougars to a Prairie Division title in the NSC this spring.
Kadyrov (20-3) is joined by top seed Jeremy Bush (21-4) and his teammate, Brian Kim of Stevenson as well as Fremd senior Matt Burkhardt (25-5).
Each advanced to the state tournament with third-round victories Friday; today’s semifinals and finals will complete the Stevenson sectional. The Patriots lead the team standings by 4 points over the Fremd, the Mid-Suburban League champ.
“Everything went according to plan so far,” said Stevenson coach Tom Stanhope, whose club begins its quest for a top-three state finish with a full complement after his top rated doubles team of David Packowitz-Ross Putterman (26-0) cruised easily through the competition, and No. 2 (Ryan Buxbaum-Andrew Komarov) did the same on a gorgeous day for tennis.
Play will resume at 9 a.m. today regardless of the weather conditions, with courts already reserved at the Marriot Lincolnshire in case of rain.
“We weren’t going to take anything for granted today, regardless of where our guys were seeded, and who they might be playing, so it was all business until we got all four teams through,” said Stanhope.
Kadyrov wasn’t taking anything for granted either, despite his No. 2 seed, and what appared to be a favorable draw on the other side of Bush.
“Last year I thought I had a good chance of beating (Grant) Thompson (of Lake Zurich) — until my back began to flair up, and I eventually had to take an injury default. So today my plan was to get my first serve in, work the points, and finish things off as quick as I could,” said Kadyrov, who opened with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Mike Volk of Lake Zurich, before elminating Buffalo Grove senior Tim Blankshain to set up his seminfinal with Kim, who’d earlier ended the hopes of Prospect freshman Carson Burke, 6-3, 6-2. “But even though I am very happy to have qualified for the program, coach, and myself, my work isn’t done yet, and I need to go out and play as well as I can against Kim to hopefully get into the finals and improve (my seed) at the state tournament.
Burke needed three sets to defeat Sudheer Vundru of Fremd (6-3, 2-6, 6-0) to earn his spot opposite the Stevenson junior, who took full advantage of his opponent’s marathon second-round match.
Burkhardt waited over three hours to play John Behnke (Prospect) in his qualifying match. But once on the courts, the MSL champion needed little time to put away the Knights senior to earn his first trip to the tournament.
Teammates Nick Makowiecki-Maciej Niemcyzk (13-2), after a slow start, finished strong as the Vikings duo went on to a straight-set victory over Hersey’s No. 1 (Robin Shin-Jake Wendell) to send each player into the state tournament for the first time.
“We were a little sluggish in our first match (Palatine) and it was 3-3 before we broke out of it, then went on to win the next 3 games for the set, and never looked back after that,” said Makowiecki, who earned a conference title at No. 2 singles last weekend.
The Vikings will face Buxbaum-Komarov (20-4) this morning after they defeated Vlad Zuperman-Steve Mazzoni of Buffalo Grove 6-3, 6-1.
There was more disappointment for the Bison following this loss to the No. 2 team, when 3-4 seed Max Beylis-Ari Kazan dropped a heartbreaking 3-setter to their conference rivals from Fremd (Erik Rosencrans-Joe Cantieri) 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2 to grab the fourth and final state qualifying spot.
“Those guys were both really down when they lost that second set in the tiebreaker,” said Fremd coach Matt Duncan, “But in between (sets) I tried to get them to relax and calm down, and to just focus on the task ahead, and not what had just happened. And they came out and instead played aggressively, and suddenly it was 4-1 and we were almost there.
“That was a pretty emotional match, and there were a couple of times when certain calls and points led to a disagreement, but I have to say that Kevin (Schrammel) is a real classy coach, and he handled all of that stuff very professionally, and I appreciated it very much.”
Duncan’s No. 2 will take on Packowitz-Putterman, who with his long-time friend needed just over 90 minutes to defeat both Vernon Hills (David Alvaro-David Dobrik) and Lake Zurich (Matt Crisler-Steven Brown) in straight-sets.