Sometimes it’s tough being the younger brother of one of the best WPIAL girls tennis players in history.
Take Shady Side Academy’s Naman Dua. His older sister, Ananya, won two WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A singles titles in her time with the Indians, while Naman went into his senior year looking for his first.
And he finally has it.
Dua teamed with freshman Colin Gramley to win the WPIAL Class 3A doubles title with a 6-4, 6-3 victory against top-seeded Ben Ringeisen and Ted Donegan of Hampton at North Allegheny. Dua also has a WPIAL silver medal after he and Tanay Kumta lost to North Allegheny’s Jared Isaacs and Richard Hofmann in the 2016 final, but having a title of his own is something he’ll cherish.
And maybe hold over his sister.
“It feels a lot better,” Dua said. “I’ve seen a lot of hers and I’m sick of it.”
Class 2A
It was a bit anticlimactic, knowing that Sewickley Academy already had clinched its ninth consecutive WPIAL Class 2A doubles title a day earlier.
That’s what happened when both Panthers teams reached the final. The only question was which would finish first.
As it turned out, the seedings held as No. 1 Wil Nocito and Dylan Parla defeated second-seeded teammates Cole Luther and Saarang Mulukutla, 6-2, 6-0, to win their first WPIAL title.
“It’s a tremendous honor, and we wanted to come out here and compete in WPIALs and sections for a long time, ever since we’ve been on the team, so it’s good to keep [the streak] going,” Parla said. “It’s weird playing your own team because you’ve got to show up and be competitive and you want to win really bad and that’s hard to do against your own teammates.”
First Published: May 12, 2018, 12:54 a.m.