Westwood dominates District 13-6A tennis tourney

Once again, Westwood's tennis team ruled the District 13-6A tournament.

Westwood qualified for eight of the 10 available regional spots Thursday at Old Settlers Park, continuing almost a decade of domination under coach Travis Dalrymple, a 2000 graduate of Westwood who has guided the Warriors' tennis program for the past nine years.

Westwood won titles in all five events for the ninth straight year, including girls singles, girls doubles, mixed doubles, boys singles and boys doubles.

The finalists in each event qualified for the Class 6A Region II tournament, which will take place April 20-21 in Waco.

Neither of Westwood's singles champions — Gaurav Singh for the boys and Jessica Lis for the girls — lost a set during the district tournament, and Singh lost only a single game while sweeping to the championship. Singh opened with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Andrew Thornton of Cedar Ridge then followed up with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Round Rock's Jack Davidson. In the finals, Singh faced teammate Daniel Xiong and won 6-0, 6-0. Xiong had advanced to the championship with a dramatic win over Arjun Bellamkonda of Round Rock 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

While the boy's finals was all Westwood, Liu faced McNeil's Kimberley Tran for the singles title. Liu beat Thuymi Phung 6-0, 6-0 then eliminated Neha Irrinki of Round Rock 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the finals. Tran beat Jenny Ho of Pflugerville 6-0, 6-0 then beat Ally Laszewski of Round Rock 6-2, 6-1 to reach the finals. Liu used a solid serve and error-free ground game to defeated Tran in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1.

The boys doubles was another all Westwood finals as Anirudh Margam and Varun Somarouthu defeated teammates Navin Baruah and Mo Elchoumei in epic fashion. The two Warriors teams carried a combined 36-7 sets advantage into the finals, where Baruah and Elchoumei won the first set 6-4 and lost in the second set on a tie breakers 7-6 (2). Margam and Somarouthu quickly broke their opponents in the third set and cruised to a 6-3 win

In another all-Westwood matchup in the mixed doubles final, Leonard Wang and Kiana Graham defeated Daniel Antov and Flora He 6-4, 7-5 (5). Wang and Graham won their first two matches by a combined 24-1 sets.

Graham, a sophomore who won a state title in Class 6A girls singles competition last year, decided to participate in mixed doubles play this season.

Sofie Kardonik and Michelle Duan won the girls doubles over the Round Rock duo of Gracelyn King and Ramitha Irrinki 7-5, 6-3. Westwood entered the finals with a 24-2 sets record while the Dragons were taken to three sets before beating Westwood's Avery Turner and Tanvi Jankay 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. Turner and Jankay placed third by winning that match 6-1, 6-2.