Through the dappled afternoon sunlight rushed Ben Duan, scrambling across the court, his match hanging in the balance. He lunged to return one shot. He reached skyward for another, and his return fluttered just inside the baseline, to where Duan’s J.P. Stevens counterpart could only watch in dismay.
Entrenched in a third-set tiebreak, trailing 1-6, Duan rallied to win his match, 6-4, 5-7, 11-9, capping a routine Westfield victory in exhilarating fashion. No. 5 Westfield (9-1, 5-0 UCC) defeated J.P. Stevens (3-2, 3-1 GMC), 4-1, on Wednesday at a brisk Tamaques Park.
Duan, a sophomore, had appeared poised for victory in the second set, up a break and lounging a game from sealing the match, his groundstrokes crescendoing in conviction and his opponent stretching and growling and venting his frustration on loose balls.
Then Duan lost the set. Then he trailed significantly in the third-set tiebreaker.
Then he won the match.
“Tennis is weird,” summed up Westfield head coach George Kapner.
Duan acknowledged a “mental lapse” in the second set that torpedoed a seemingly mundane victory. In the tiebreak, he said, he managed to refocus and claw back from the sizable deficit. He had previously recovered from down two breaks to win the first set.
“I just tried to stop worrying about losing points and just go through my shots,” Duan said.
Westfield relied on clutch play in other matches, too. On the second doubles court, the Blue Devils had captured the first set but had fallen behind, 4-2, to start the second. Despite the deficit, Evan Sewald, thrust into the starting lineup because of an injury to Tristan Wroe, and his partner, Colin Cimei, battled back with meticulous groundstrokes and quick hands at the net.
Kapner lauded Sewald’s play.
“[Sewald] played wonderfully,” he said. “Fit right in with Colin. They formed a great team.”
Kapner also mentioned his team’s depth, saying “it’s great to know that” the team has options at its disposal if injuries arise.
After trailing 5-3 in the second set, the Sewald-Cimei tandem ripped off four straight games to close out the match, 6-1, 7-5.
Deven Patel took care of business at third singles, convincingly winning his match, 6-2, 6-1. Patel seized control immediately, breaking his opponent twice early and consolidating those breaks with strong service games. Patel typically competes at second doubles but on Wednesday shifted to third singles because of Wroe’s absence. Wroe is day-to-day with a thumb injury.
Patel ambled off the court first, dispatching his opponent rapidly, but Cole Hornbeck and Eshaan Khera followed closely behind at first doubles. The pair won, 6-3, 6-3, wrapping up at roughly the same time as Sewald and Cimei.
That left the stage clear for Duan, on Court 1, and Zander Ainge, on Court 2. Ainge kept his match close, forcing each set to a stalemate at 5-5, before suffering breaks in service in both sets on his way to a crushing defeat, 7-5, 7-5.
Westfield’s win, which Kapner proclaimed a “big win” over a tough opponent, was the second of a four-game, four-day home stand. The Blue Devils will host Scotch Plains-Fanwood on Thursday and Union Catholic on Friday, both at 4 p.m.
The Blue Devils should experience little difficulty with either opponent. That made Wednesday’s matchup more important, an early litmus test for a dominant team.
“One of the first matches I’ve played where my opponent is really, really good,” Duan said. “So winning this match means that I can go forward being more confident.”
“A good day,” Kapner said.
