Davis provides thrill in win over North Greene

Published 10:34 pm Tuesday, March 15, 2016

It didn’t have the star power of a professional match, but it was every bit as exciting and had as much drama unfold. It didn’t feel like a No. 3 seeded match as both Davis and Compton gave it their all and left the crowd to give an ovation afterward for both players.

The match actually went on past the 8-8 threshold because Davis and Compton were under the impression you had to win by two games, so then the match went back to 8-8 and they played a tiebreak.

Davis made some great shots in this match, mainly from the forehand side. The backhand was a struggle, so he tried to play forehands as much as possible and it worked.

The point of the match came at 7-7, when Davis hit the forehand heard all over the Elizabethton High campus as he ripped into a shot that bounced in and Compton could not get a play on it.

It was the greatest point in a match that was full of great points. Davis went on to win the match in a tiebreak and in what ended up being a classic high school tennis match on the very first day of the season.

“I feel the most important thing going through my mind was to stay calm and stay steady throughout the match because I was down for awhile and then I just had to stay calm to come back for the win,” said Davis.

Davis did display a lethal forehand during the match and though he did make quite a few unforced errors, when he did make a winner it was usually one to remember.

Davis knew that if he was going to win this match, it was going to be by using his forehand.

“My backhand was particularly working anyways, so I was trying to hit any shot I could to win the match,” said Davis.

Compton grabbed an early lead in the match and Davis was beginning to wonder if this was going to be his day. Sometimes though, tennis is more about mental and Davis never gave up on himself.

“When I was down I thought that I might not win or whatever,” said Davis. “But I just tried to keep my head in it. I have been working on that a lot lately and that’s what I have to do to keep calm.”

Even if Davis had won 8-0, it still would have been very exciting because Davis is a fun player to watch who if you watch him, you might think you might be watching the pros as he seems to emulate some of the professional players.

Davis instead of cheering for Serena Williams or the recently suspended Maria Sharapova on the women’s side says his favorite female player is Simona Halep from Romania and instead of going on the bandwagon and cheering for Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal on the men’s side, his favorite is Milos Ranoic of Canada.

Davis admits he watches a lot of professional tennis on TV and tries to look how to improve by watching the world’s best.

“I watch quite a bit of tennis on TV and I try stay with what new and what’s going on with the world of tennis,” said Davis. “I mean, you want to be like a pro right.”

Zeb Moore had one of those days that things weren’t really going his way, but it was good enough as the Cyclone No. 1 seed won 8-2 over North Greene’s Micah McCamis.

One of Moore’s strengths is his first serve, but on this day according to Moore’s stats he only got 26 percent of his first serves in, a number he said is usually much higher.

McCamis broke Moore after Moore had broken McAmis twice to start the match and McCamis only trailed 3-2 after five games. Moore hung on and secured the win, mostly due to solid groundstrokes and a good second serve percentage.

“I had to make for my first serves with my second serves,” said Moore. “I felt like my second serves were really on point today. It allowed me to make up for my mass amount of errors on my first serves and I hit the groundstrokes I needed to and did a good job coming up to the net.

Other Elizabethton boys results included Daniel Raposo winning 6-0 over Tristan Cross, Tre McCrary winning 6-0 over Kaleb Jabloniski, Garrett Barnett won 8-6 over Michael Malone and Adam Cornett closed out singles play with an 8-1 win to give Elizabethton a sweep in singles.

Elizabethton won No. 1 doubles with an 8-2 win over McCamis-Cross. North Greene’s Compton-Jabloniski won 6-0 in No. 2 doubles over Christian Price and Justin Cox and Kush Patel and Joseph Williams lost to Barrett and Malone of North Greene 8-6.

Click noticed how well the basketball players did on this day as McCrary and Cornett were among those who really stepped up.

“They just dominate the game,” said Click about her basketball players. “They have never picked up a racquet, but they play and they get it in and that’s all that matters. That’s what we have to do at this level. I am proud of them. 7-2 same as the girls. We were able to get everybody in. We were able to get some of the non-seeds in and let them play.

The Elizabethton girls, who will be in action once again in an all-girls match against Happy Valley on Thursday, were just as dominant.

Two singles matches went to mercy rule as two-time Class AA state champion and Furman commit Danielle Vines took a 6-0 decision over Faith McDonald and Carmen Sproviero as the No. 6 seed won 6-0 over Maggie Sturm. Eliana Rangel also won for Elizabethton following an 8-2 triumph over Kim Brown, as did Carole Sweeley and Rachel Peters, who won 8-3 and 8-1 respectively over Alexis Gibson and Elizabeth Bell.

The lone singles win for North Greene came From Emma Davis, a 9-7 victor over Jordan Teague. Elizabethton took two of the three doubles, with Vines and Teague won 6-0 over McDonald and Bowen and Sproviero and Maggie Shankles won 8-5 over Bell and Sturm.

North Greene’s lone doubles win came at No. 2 where Davis and Harrison won 8-6 over Caitlyn Gardner and Annie Street.