Bob Shwalb, Special to The Record
WINDSOR – Chikaya Sato attempted two drop shots in Wednesday’s state singles tournament match and missed them both.
Beyond that, Creskill’s dynamic sophomore was nearly perfect as he mowed down West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s top-seeded Kabir Sarita in the NJSIAA Singles Tournament quarterfinals, 6-3 and 6-2.
Sato unleashed an incredible array of winners that had the crowd oohing and aahing and the classy, Princeton-bound Sarita laughing and shaking his head in disbelief.
“I’ve been able to focus more in my matches lately,” Sato said. “There’s times when I’m so focused it’s hard to miss.”
Looking more like a top seed himself, the seventh-seeded Sato will face West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s other entry – eighth-seeded Robert Sinakowicz – in today’s 2 p.m. semifinals.
On the other side of the bracket, Dwight-Englewood’s second-seeded Daniel Nuzhny endured the ultimate heartbreak as he lost to Montgomery’s fifth-seeded Ishan Ravichander in a first-to-10-point super tiebreaker, played in lieu of a third set.
After staging an amazing rally from 1-5 and then 2-5 and 15-40 down to win the first set on a tiebreaker, Nuzhny lost the second set and then the super tiebreaker, falling by scores of 6-7(3), 6-2 and 1-0 (10-8).
The Sato-Sarita match had its own tense moments. Sato recorded a critical service break in seventh game to go up 4-3 on his way to winning the first set, 6-3.
Flashing back to last year’s tournament, Sato lost a super tiebreaker in the quarterfinals to the previous year’s champion – East Brunswick’s Joshua Marchalik. With that in mind, Sato had no interest in playing a super tiebreaker against Sarita, who lost in last year’s finals to NV/Demarest’s Michael Rozenvasser.
“I didn’t want to have the same thing happen as last year,” Sato said. “In the second set, I just tried to keep doing what I was doing. I just focused on winning each point.”
Early in the second set, Sato struggled to hold his first two service games but managed to hang on. In the first of these games, he drilled aces on consecutive add-outs to hold off his opponent.
Leading 3-2, Sato then recorded his biggest win of the match – a critical service break that gave him a 4-2 edge. In this game, Sato made three incredible shots – a topspin lob winner from the baseline and two forehand winners down the right sideline.
Sato then held serve in the next game before recording one final service break, ending it on his third match point.
“It doesn’t matter what seed you are or what seed you’re playing,” Sato said. “In the back of our minds, we all want to win this thing.
“I’m excited to be [in the semifinals] and hope I can keep playing the way I did today.”
In third round doubles action, Dwight-Englewood’s 10th-seeded pair of Cameron Janssens and Tejas Akula fell to Newark Acadmeny’s second-seeded duo of Brian Peterson and Aaron Ramos, 7-6(4) and 6-1. Northern Highlands’ 15th-seeded senior tandem of Zach Levin and Brandon Holleran fell to Livingston’s third-seeded pair of Kyle Ferguson and Austin Sertner, 6-4 and 6-2.
