At the conclusion of day two of the 2022 5A boys tennis championships, five of the seven lines have familiar foes playing the finals.
Cherry Creek and Valor Christian will square off in five of the seven lines tomorrow morning to determine the individual state champions. The matchups will be at 2 singles, as well as all four doubles lines.
The two exceptions are at 1 singles, where defending state champion Aram Izmirian of Cherry Creek will matchup with fiery newcomer Eduard Tsaturyan from Grandview. The other matchup will see Cherry Creek junior Kristian Kostadinov facing off against junior Brady Jenkins from Regis Jesuit.
For Jenkins, it is a year of redemption after falling in the second round of 2 singles at last year’s championships. This time around, he knocked off Denver East’s Lucas Krambeck in three sets.
“It’s exciting, this is the furthest I’ve been at state,” Jenkins exclaimed. “It’s fun to play around all of these good players and other kids from Colorado. It’s just a great experience. I had a really tough loss last year at state, so it’s really nice that I get to go further this year and represent my team and my school.”
For Cherry Creek, it is the first time sending all 7 lines to finals since 2013. That season, they swept all seven positions on the way to the state title.
This season’s individual tournament matchups will serve as a preview to next Tuesday’s team tournament finals, where No. 1 Cherry Creek will matchup again with No. 2 Valor Christian.
In 2 singles, Cherry Creek’s Kiril Kostadinov will face Valor freshman Jace Nakamura.
In doubles, 1 doubles will feature Valor Christian’s Graham Beukelman & Drew Schell against Cherry Creek’s Jack Eikelberner & Charles Stern. 2 doubles will be Trevor Robinson & Matthew Hu of Cherry Creek taking on Ryan Mandes & Ryan Greenfield of Valor Christian. At 3 doubles, Cherry Creek’s Trey Zurcher & Ryder Landry will play against Jack Mohler and Harrison Wentworth of Valor Christian. Finally at 4 doubles, Tate Hutchins & Drew Kaprielian of Cherry Creek will take on Rory MacEwan & Drew Summers of Valor Christian.
The finals and third place matches will begin at 9 a.m., Oct. 15, at Denver’s City Park.