In a first singles final that would have been incomprehensible just five days earlier, Ryan Krueger of Scotch Plains Fanwood completed a remarkable two days of tennis by routing fellow sophomore Ravi Netravali of Westfield 6-3,6-3 Friday in the Union County tennis finals last Friday at Donald Van Blake Courts in Plainfield.
Coming in as the third seed, Krueger avenged an earlier season defeat by dispatching second seeded David Richards of Summit in the semi finals that morning and fourth seeded Netravali shocked top seed and defending champion Kevin Chen of New Providence 6-2, 6-4. Normally the Blue Devils’ second singles player, Netravali was pressed into the top spot when Westfield first singles Kevin Shallcross broke his toe in a non tennis accident last Sunday.
Krueger becomes the first Raider player since Arjun Viswanathan in 1995 to win the Esposito trophy, named after the former Scotch Plains Fanwood coach and teacher. The only other Raider champion was Jeff Miller, a three time champion between 1967-9.
Krueger, who lost to Shallcross in the second singles finals last year, credited his sterling performances to eliminating mistakes in his game and showing more patience.
“My goal against both players was to keep the ball in play as long as possible and not make unforced errors,” said Krueger.
“Ryan has a great all around game and is in great condition so it was important for him to have long rallies and make his opponent beat him,” said Raiders’ coach Sandra Miller.
In the finals Krueger took command immediately by breaking Netravali in the first game and broke again in the fifth game for a 4-1 lead. Krueger was especially effective returning Netravali’s strong first serve and hitting an array of powerful deep shots.
“Ravi has a great first serve and it was important for me to make a decent return. That was my focus,” said Krueger
Serving for the set, Krueger lost his serve for the only time in the match but bounced back to break Netravali again and take the set.
“That was the key game,” said Krueger.
“I didn’t want to let him get back to 5-4. It was important to close him out there.”
In the second set, Krueger again took the early lead and continued attacking with his assortment of strokes. At 5-3, Krueger showed no jitters and impressively served out the match at love, finishing the match with a deep forehand that Netravali hit into the net.
“He played a great match and deserved to win” said Netravali.
“He never gave me a chance to get in the match.”
Veteran Westfield Coach George Kapner had nothing but praise for Netravali,
“I knew Ravi would step and play a great tournament for us. He was fantastic against Chen in the semi finals, beating the defending champion,” said Kapner,
“Sometimes a young player has trouble putting two great matches together. This is taking nothing away from Ryan who played a great tournament and is an impressive player,”
Helping Krueger’s cause was older brother Jason, who had played singles for the Raiders between 2002 and 2005. Now a freshman engineering student at Cornell the elder Krueger had driven the 225 miles from Ithaca late Thursday night to help assist his brother.
“Having Jason was a great help. He gave me a lot of great advice and helped me stay focused,” said Ryan Krueger.
And what pearls of wisdom did big brother offer?
“I just told Ryan to believe in your strokes and not try to win the points immediately. The longer the rally the better chance he would win the point,” said Jason Krueger.
“I am very proud of him,”
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