Garden City's Morris has a tough day
Zach Morris of Garden City comes to the net during his singles match against Matt Nardella at the NYSPHSAA boys tennis state championship at the United States Tennis Center in Flushing, NY. (June 4, 2011) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
For Garden City's Zach Morris, yesterday's semifinal match brought together the worst possible confluence of events.
First, the senior was less than 24 hours removed from a grueling three-set quarterfinal win. Second, and more importantly, he drew the top seed and defending state champion Jeremy Court of New Rochelle.
In short order, Morris lost to the near-flawless Court 6-2, 6-0 in the NYSPHSAA boys tennis state championships at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.
Court made only a handful of unforced errors and pushed Morris from sideline to sideline.
"He didn't miss," Morris said of the No. 1 seed. "And I could've played better. I could have been more aggressive by getting him on his back foot, but that didn't happen."
Morris was familiar with Court, having played him once on the club circuit. Morris recalled winning 6-4, 6-4, on an indoor hard court. But this, he said, was a new and improved Court, whose natural ball movement works better outdoors.
His shots dipped, darted and flat-out befuddled Morris.
It did not help that, 24 hours earlier, Morris survived three match points to win his quarterfinal match against No. 5 Alex Tsai of Binghamton. That win took a physical and emotional toll on the 2010 Nassau champion and four-year state qualifier.
"I never recovered from yesterday's match," admitted Morris.
Morris later lost a tough three-setter in the third/fourth place match to Christian Brothers Academy's Matt Nardella 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-2. Nardella lost to Cold Spring Harbor's Josh Levine in his semifinal 6-4, 6-4.
The Hills East doubles team of Chris Hunter and Eric Bertuglia lost their semifinal to No. 1 Ben Fife and Austin Kaplan of Scarsdale 6-3, 6-2. In the third/fourth place match later in the day, they fell to Horace Greeley's Ben Gilman and Spencer Goldberg, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
In the consolation tourney doubles final, Nassau champions J.J. Tauil and Dan Grishteyn of Hewlett beat Sachem East's Dylan Quintana and Jason Quintana 6-3, 6-3. Both teams were eliminated in the first round of the main draw but won three matches over two days to make the consolation final.
