Ashland boy’s tennis looking to get back to tournament

After finishing last year with a 7-7 record, the Ashland boys’ tennis team made the best of its first Division 2 South tournament game defeating Nauset 3-2, before losing to Walpole in the next round. Clocker Coach Mike Roman is looking for his squad to make a return trip to the Divisional Tournament this season.
“Although it is way too early to say, we do know that we play in a tough Tri Valley League,” Roman said. “We’re looking to be in the top half of the league this year, but our main goal is to return to the tournament.”
The Clockers said goodbye to senior doubles players Ari Dinerman and Colby Weiss, who combined for many a win for Ashland. Despite the los of the doubles tandem Roman is optimistic about his team’s chances during the upcoming season. Ashland will return four returners from last year’s squad, all vying for playing time on the singles circuit.
Danny Ramones, last year’s number one singles player for the Clockers, is hoping to recapture that top spot. However, it is undetermined at this time if Ramone will be able to hold onto that top position on the courts as junior Arjun Nair, a year round tennis player, sophomore Sai Chanda, last year’s number two singles player, and senior Jonathan Lee, the squad’s third singles player, ae looking to knock him from the top spot.
“Going into the season all four have the distinct possibility of fitting into the singles positions somewhere,” the Clocker Coach said. “It definitely will give us flexibility, now I just need to figure out which player best fits where. If I can do that it’ll give us the best possibility as a team to win.”
Having four athletes that can all play on the singles circuit at any one of the three positions also gives Roman the ability to move his athletes around each and every matchup depending on the opposition.
Currently Andre Agostinelli and Sahil Muthuswani look to have the upper hand at first doubles for the Clockers prior to the season opener. Playing together last spring the duo posted a .500 record for Ashland. Roman would love to see the two not only grow as a team but pick up some more wins now that they’re a year older and have been playing together.
While it is a possibility that Agostinelli and Muthuswani will take the court together once again at first doubles, second doubles are something that will not be determined until the season gets underway. Roman will first have to figure out his three singles players and whomever is left will probably move into one of the second doubles positions for the Clockers.
“Once the three singles spots are decided then we’ll see whose left out of the four,” the coach said. “The fourth player will most likely take a spot on the doubles team. There are also another four or five returning players who will be battling it out for that final position.”
According to Roman number one singles is any bodies to have it’ll all be determined on how each athlete comes into camp. Ramones is a smart individual; tennis player who has the upper edge, but Chanda is a tremendous talent who can make the jump from the number two singles spot into that number one position. Lee is an absolute competitor and the coach believes that his style of play fits in nicely as a third singles player. Although the Ashland Coach has not seen Nair play since the seventh grade the junior is also a threat to jump into singles play.
At the time of this writing the season is still a few weeks away from getting underway and anything could happen in that time frame. Things could go as Roman predicted or someone can have themselves a fantastic pre-season and turn things totally upside down.