By James Yodice / Journal Staff Writer
There was a repeat state champion. There was a tremendous comeback story. One school produced a state champion for the first time.
The state singles tennis championship matches Thursday at the Jerry Cline courts offered quite a variety.
A freshman, Savannah Reiman, gave Organ Mountain its first-ever tennis champion in singles or doubles. A sophomore, Ketan Garg of La Cueva, who missed all of last season with a major shoulder injury, was enormously resilient as he, like Reiman, won a Class 5A title. Avery Williams, a senior from Goddard, went back-to-back in Class 1A-4A girls.
And then there was the taut drama in Class 1A-4A boys, by far the craziest and most memorable of the four singles finals Thursday.
The champion was Albuquerque Academy’s Austin Curtis, the No. 2 seed. The scores were 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 over No. 1 Henry Kaufman of Santa Fe Prep. This is the bare bones recap.
But there was so much more than that.
“Almost a one in a million match,” Curtis said. “Never ever played a match like that before in my life.”
Curtis overcame a first set in which Kaufman asserted himself. And he had to overcome being down love-40 on his serve to open the second set. That steadied him, and he eventually squared the match and forced a third and deciding set.
Curtis, after breaking serve, was leading the third set 5-4, 30-love when he fell to the court with a major cramp on his right leg. This was the second injury timeout for him in the match, and there was a discussion amongst officials about whether he was entitled to a second injury timeout in the same match. He was, if the two injuries were unrelated, came the reply argument from Academy.
Curtis continued in the match but lost the game, which included him attempting an underhand serve. And there was concern in his head about whether he’d even be able to finish.
