Kupferman, Ramanathan clinch perfect seasons
By Jay TurnerA memorable regular season ended in fitting fashion on Tuesday for Canton High’s Max Kupferman and Suraj Ramanathan as the two tennis stars — described by coach Bill Donovan as his “Nos. 1 and 1A” — calmly finished off their continuation matches at Mansfield to each clinch an undefeated record.
Senior captain Suraj Ramanathan (Mike Tureski photo)
Both Kupferman, a sophomore, and Ramanathan, a senior, had built comfortable leads and were partway through their second set when the match had to be called due to rain last week. Returning to Mansfield on May 24, they both went on to win by identical 6-3, 7-5 scores with Kupferman defeating Hornets No. 1 Kailash Elumelai and Ramanathan prevailing over No. 2 Neema Khosravani.
With the victories, Ramanathan finishes the season with a perfect 16-0 mark while Kupferman finishes at 15-0. Together they accounted for more than 70 percent of the team’s individual wins during the regular season — giving the Bulldogs what amounted to a 2-0 head start in every best-of-five match.
While it worked out nicely through the first few weeks of the season, that third victory has proved elusive as of late, with Canton dropping nine of their last 10 matches — all by a 3-2 score.
By virtue of their strength of schedule and their 5-1 start in April, the Bulldogs will likely have a chance at redemption as they came into the week all but assured of a tournament spot with a No. 20 ranking in the latest Division 2 power rankings. The final seedings are due to be released next week.
As for the CHS girls team, their season may well be over after Monday’s 3-2 home loss to Foxboro. The loss put their record at 4-12 overall and they were outside the top 32 as of the latest power rankings release.
Although they showed promise this season and featured a strong top two in Camila Cutter and Laura Correal, the lady Bulldogs’ faced a brutal string of opponents, including three teams within their own division that finished a combined 39-8 (Foxboro, OA, Sharon).
Canton did manage to give Foxboro a battle in the season finale, with third singles player Olivia Maloney winning in straight sets and the first doubles pairing of Grace Powers and Olivia Durham prevailing in a three-set tiebreak. Maloney also held on for a marathon win in their road match against the Warriors last Thursday, while Panayiota Michaelidis and Liv McCloskey did the same in the second doubles match a few days earlier versus North Attleboro.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=87258
Posted by Jay Turner
on May 27 2022. Filed under High School, Sports.
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