Different partner, same result.
Harsha Santhanam became a two-time champion for Methacton Saturday, again winning the Pioneer Athletic Conference Doubles Tournament at Perkiomen Valley. In doing so, the Warrior senior demonstrated the ability to dominate the field even with a different teammate playing alongside him.
Last spring, Santhanam teamed up with Krishna Suraesh to win the PAC’s doubles title. This time around, he was joined by Adam Zhang in dispatching Spring-Ford top seeds Malchu Pascual and Adit Jain in three sets.
Coming off a 6-2, 6-1 semifinal against Upper Merion’s Sam Tepe and Chetan Mitra, the second-seeded Santhanam/Zhang pairing opened the final with a 6-2 victory. Pascual, the PAC’s two-time singles champion, and Jain came back with a 5-7 win in the second set, but Sanathanam/Zhang took the deciding third set 6-4.
To get to the finals, the Pascual/Jain tandem had to contend with Methacton’s other doubles team of Aaron Zhang and Krishna Pillutla. That semifinal ended up going three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.
Aaron Zhang and Pillutla went on to finish third, topping Tepe/Mitra in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. The fifth-place match proved a close one between Perkiomen Valley’s Farraz Haider/Will Ye and Owen J. Roberts’ Jason Sawicki/Sam Savage. The three-set duel went in favor of Haider/Ye, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 10-7.
In the fifth-place playbacks, Sawicki/Savage took an 8-5 pro set from Upper Perkiomen’s Ian Costanzo and Adam Dougherty, with Haider/Ye topping Roberts’ Nico DiStefano/Gion Gross also in an 8-5 pro set.
The PAC’s top four duos will advance to the District 1-AAA Doubles Tournament May 10-11 at Legacy. Additionally, the Pope John Paul II team of Tommy Rutkowski and J.T. Collins — it won an opening-round match against Norristown’s Chris Garcia and Doje Toussant Friday — will be competing in the Class AA field.
Comments
