Abington Heights junior Praneel Mallaiah gave District 2 its only win in six Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association boys tennis state tournament tries this season.
Mallaiah defeated Cedar Crest’s Viseth Meng 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the opening round of the Class 3A singles tournament May 24 at Hershey Racquet Club.
Later that day, Mallaiah lost to eventual state runner-up Brian Yi, the District 1 champion from Lower Merion, 6-0, 6-0.
The Mallaiah victory was the only one in singles, doubles or team tournament action in either classification for District 2.
The Abington Heights doubles team of William Arp-Domenic Peters also wound up in a three-set match in the first round. They lost to Dallastown’s Jacob Horn-Ian Opitz 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
Samir Roberts-Mouzon from Carver Engineering & Science out of Philadelphia defeated Ethan Borick from Scranton Prep 6-2, 6-0 in Class 2A singles.
DISTRICT SINGLES
WILKES-BARRE – After getting bounced from last year’s District 2 Class 3A boys tennis singles tournament in the semifinals, Mallaiah was hungry to get back to the top of the class.
He did so without dropping a set all week, clinching his second Class 3A singles title in three years after beating Michael Hamel of Wilkes-Barre Area 6-3, 7-5 at Kirby Park May 8.
Mallaiah has been the top seed in the Class 3A field for three consecutive years now, and after a tough out in 2023, the top singles player for Abington Heights all year long showed exactly why he’s had such a great run in Class 3A over the years.
“I knew I had to put in the work over the summer and into the season,” Mallaiah said. “Just playing smarter on the court, that’s what helped me win today.”
This year’s final, Mallaiah and Hamel, was a rematch of the 2022 District 2 championship match. There, Mallaiah defeated Hamel, then a sophomore at Wilkes-Barre Area, 6-3, 6-0 to win the championship.
Hamel proved more than a worthy opponent for Mallaiah, but the result remained the same as it was in 2022.
Two hard-fought sets both went the way of Mallaiah, winning the first 6-3 and rallying past Hamel after falling behind in the second to win 7-5 and lock up the district title.
“His serve was on point,” Mallaiah said. “ … Finally, I was able to take that down a bit, play a bit smarter and safer and it enabled me to make that comeback.”
The semifinal matches in Class 3A were almost the polar opposite of their 2A counterparts on the other courts: while the 2A semis both went three sets and featured a lot of back-and-forth action, the 3A semis were largely quiet, with top seeds holding up.
Hamel was the first of the semifinal winners off the court, making quick work of Abington Heights’ Arp by a 6-3, 6-2 final to reach his fourth straight district championship match.
Just a few minutes later, Mallaiah punched his own ticket to the finals. He defeated Delaware Valley’s Alex Mullen 6-2, 6-1 to make it back to the finals for the first time since winning it all in 2022.
Mallaiah had won a pair of 6-0, 6-0 matches on the tournament’s first day.
Scranton Prep’s Borick won the Class 2A singles title.
Borick dropped just three games in four sets on the first day. He battled past Wyoming Seminary’s Bill Hall 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals, then had a lead over Wyoming Area’s Luca Argenio 6-4, 1-2 before winning by default when Argenio retired with an injury.
DISTRICT DOUBLES
Arp-Peters won an all-Abington Heights championship match in District 2 Class 3A doubles, beating third-seeded Brady Comstock-Liam Farrell 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Both teams reached the final with three consecutive straight-set victories.
Both Scranton Prep teams, David Geyfman-Dylan Tost and David Ved-Matthew Cohen, were eliminated in the quarterfinals in Class 2A doubles.
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