Great Neck North's Melvin Thu keeps cool to claim Nassau boys badminton singles title

It was clear Melvin Thu had been to the final round of the Nassau County boys individual badminton tournament before.

The top-seeded Great Neck North junior was composed throughout his 21-6, 21-8 win over No. 3 Justin Choi of Great Neck South to clinch his first singles title Saturday at Long Beach.

“My first few matches, I was still getting warmed up and I wasn’t playing as well as I wanted to,” Thu said. “During the quarter and semifinals, I started feeling more like myself and I was locked in for the finals.”

Thu was the tournament’s runner-up each of the previous two years.

“It feels good. I would’ve liked to win last year, but I’m glad I got this one,” Thu said. “Third time’s a charm.”

Thu was on the attack from the start and jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first game. He never trailed throughout the of the match.

“He’s wanted this for a long time,” said his coach, John Zak. “He was playing so aggressive, you could tell he wanted it. That was the best match I’ve ever seen him play by far.”

The doubles side of the tournament also had a team win its first title.

Jericho sophomores Jonathan Chau and Jerry Zhang defeated the No. 3 Great Neck South tandem of junior Ryan Jacob and senior Carter Shea, 21-12, 21-18, to win the doubles championship.

Zhang was a member of the second place team last year with Jerry Huang.

“I’m glad I was able to come back this year and win the title with Jonathan,” Zhang said.

Chau and Zhang entered the tournament as the top seed and played like one throughout the tournament.

They faced some resistance in the second game of their championship match when they trailed 11-9.

But they wasted no time regaining their rhythm, winning five straight points to give them the momentum.

“We started communicating more and analyzing our play so we could fix our mistakes,” Zhang said.

“It’s all about confidence,” Chau added. “We just had to work together more to regain that confidence.”

Zhang also said advice from coach Mark Burkowsky helped them come back, but Burkowsky said he asked them a question about where they should try to place the shuttle and they figured it out.

“They really came up with it themselves,” Burkowksy said. “I like to try to elicit advice from them before giving it to them because I know they’re that good that they can figure it out on their own.”