Semifinal matches set in D2 boys tennis singles tournament
May 8—The semifinals in the District 2 boys tennis singles tournaments have been set after action began on Thursday at Kirby Park.
In Class 2A, chalk held up: top seed Akhilesh Velaga from Scranton Prep will take on the No. 4 seed, Holy Redeemer's Frank Klimovitz. In the other semi, Wyoming Seminary's Billy Hall will take on Wyoming Area's Luca Argenio in a 2 vs. 3 matchup.
One player outside the top four seeds managed to break through to the semifinals in Class 3A: Wyoming Valley West's Gadgidas Reisinger, the No. 6 seed, will take on second seed William Arp from Abington Heights.
In the other semifinal, Arp's Abington Heights teammate, Praneel Mallaiah, will take on Crestwood's Tommy Biscotti.
Due to anticipated rain, the semifinals and finals for the District 2 boys tennis singles tournament will be held at the Birchwood Racquet Club in Clarks Summit.
The semifinals are set to begin at noon on Friday.
CLASS 2A
Last year's champ, Scranton Prep's Ethan Borick, was a senior, so there will be no chance of a repeat in Class 2A.
Velaga is no stranger to singles gold, however; he won the district title in 2022 before a finals loss in 2023 and a semifinal loss to Argenio last season.
On Thursday, he defeated Mid Valley's Carson Beck and MMI Prep's Nate Linnen, both in straight sets, to reach the semis. Velaga won both his singles matches on Tuesday in the team semis/championship, including a win over potential finals opponent Hall.
Klimovitz is a first-time singles semifinalist, improving each year. Last season, he was defeated in the quarterfinals by Argenio. He was also a silver medalist in doubles last season along with partner Jacob Ohrin.
He started the tournament with a straight-sets win over Dunmore's Oum Patel, then gritted out a win in three sets over Alex Harrison from Holy Cross.
Hall defeated Michael Reiprich (Honesdale) and Ray Zhang (Holy Redeemer) to reach the semis for a third straight season. In both his previous semifinal appearances, Hall would lose to the eventual district champ — Borick last year and Western Wayne's Tristan Vivona in 2023.
He'll take on Argenio, the silver medalist from a year ago. Argenio battled through a leg injury in last year's final before ultimately retiring against Borick.
Argenio beat Mid Valley's Gabe James and MMI Prep's Xavier Bleiler on Thursday to reach the semis.
Hall and Argenio met this year in the regular season, with Hall picking up the win in three sets.
CLASS 3A
Just as Abington Heights has been pretty invincible as a team, Mallaiah has been the same way as a singles player. He'll be trying for his third district title in four years, the only blemish so far a semifinal loss in 2023.
He didn't drop a single game in Thursday's early rounds, beating Scranton's Tom Bergman and Valley View's Billy Giovagnoli by 6-0, 6-0 scores.
It'll be the second time in three days that Mallaiah matches up with Biscotti, after the two clashed in Wednesday's team district final. Mallaiah won that match, and also knocked Biscotti out of last year's singles tournament in the quarterfinals.
Biscotti cruised through his first two matches Thursday, beating Wallenpaupack's Igor Petek and fifth-seeded Alex Mullen from Delaware Valley.
On the bottom half of the draw, the only seeding upset of the day came from Reisinger in pretty emphatic fashion, taking down the third-seeded Burak 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Reisinger beat West Scranton's Pujan Nepal in the second round to start the tournament.
He'll have a tough assignment in Arp, the No. 2 singles player from Abington Heights who made a run to the semifinals last year as a freshman.
Arp only dropped one game in each of his first two tournament marches, beating Crestwood's Sean Rossi and Wallenpaupack's Denim Horsford.
Though Abington Heights and Wyoming Valley West did meet on Wednesday in the team semifinals, Arp and Reisinger didn't square off: Reisinger was defeated by Mallaiah in the No. 1 singles match, while Arp was leading Max Weihbrecht 6-0, 5-0 in the No. 2 singles match before play was halted.
