Stepping onto the courts ready to dominate their opponents, the boys varsity tennis team currently has ten wins and two losses this season. Through this ongoing season, the Eagles have had a program-best record through the first twelve games of the season, claiming the first seed in the White Division as they did their previous year.
Out of the many players in Edison’s roster, some standout performers have been instrumental in helping to achieve Edison’s stunning 10–2 record. Pranav Srinivasan ‘27, primarily playing third sosingles, possesses an undefeated record. Second singles player Chetan Kallam ‘26 won nine out of the ten games that he played this season. Moreover, Vinieth Elango ‘27 also stood out this season. He started playing mid-season, and despite his delayed appearance, he has shown great skill and technique, having lost only one match so far in this season.
“The tennis team in general consists of great players that have all improved tremendously,” said Kallam. “Although this tennis season has been very difficult, we are already guaranteed to win the White for the second year due to new additions.”
In their opening match of the season, Edison was pitted against Iselin Kennedy, where the Eagles claimed a close victory in a score of 3–2. In the first singles, Sarvesh Premkumar ‘25 from Edison emerged victorious against Iselin’s Kennedy’s Eshan Nagpal ‘24 in three sets. Premkumar narrowly lost the first set 5–7. However, he came back in the following set, securing a pivotal break point to win 6–4. In the crucial deciding tiebreaker, Premkumar ended up winning, scoring seven points to Nagpal’s five.
The second singles viewed a commendable performance by Edison’s Kallam, who defeated his opponent, Ronak Gowda ‘26, in straight sets, both being won in scores of 6–2. The third singles match was a matchup between Srinivasan from Edison and Sriram Guddimela ‘24 from Iselin. Srinivasan, like Kallam, prevailed over his opponent in straight sets that read scores of 6–2 and 6–2. With Srinivasan’s performance, Edison was able to secure its victory against Iselin.
In the first doubles, Iselin’s Jeet Kachhiapatel ‘24 and Vihaan Agarwal ‘24 outplayed Edison’s Bijan Urakov ‘27 and Billy Wu ‘26 in two sets, resulting in Iselin Kennedy’s first win of the match. Iselin carried their motivation to the second doubles, where Matysh Garg ‘24 and Shaurya Telang ‘27 of Iselin defeated Edison’s Arya Patel ‘24 and Ishaan Shetty ‘24 in two sets. However, because of Edison’s performance in the singles matchups, they were able to claim the victory in a score of 3-2 and start their season off on a high.
Another memorable moment this season for the boys was their two consecutive clean sweeps against Sayreville and Wardlaw-Hartridge.
Against Sayreville, Premkumar gave another strong performance in the first singles. He swept the opposition, Varun Jha ‘24, in the first set, raising the spirits of all the Edison spectators. He then demolished Jha with a score of 6–1 in the second set. In the second singles, Kallam also dominated his opponent, Aadi Patel ‘24, in two sets with scores of 6-2 and 6–2 respectively. In the third singles, Srinivasan carried the momentum initiated by Premkumar and Kallam, sweeping his opponent, Manav Jhala ‘24, in both sets.
In the first doubles, Urakov and Wu continued the winning streak and outplayed Iselin’s Yash Shah ‘27 and Dhruv Patel ‘27. The duo swept the opposition in the first set and ended the match by winning 6-2 in the second set. Similarly, Patel and Shetty also beat Sayreville’s Marek Pomiklo ‘25 and Darryl Lumapas ‘26 in two sets with scores of 6–2 and 6–1.
Against Wardlaw-Hartridge, Premkumar once again set the bar high, edging past Jai Maurya ‘25 in a three tight sets. Although Maurya defeated Premkumar in the first set 7–5, Premkumar recovered strong, winning the second set and the third set tiebreak with scores of 7–5 and 10–7 respectively. Continuing his streak of impressive displays, Kallam overcame his opponent, Richard Zhang ‘26 in two sets that read scores of 6–2 and 6–3.
The first doubles featured a dominating performance by Urakov and Wu, who defeated their opponents, Justin Lustgarten ‘26 and Alex Cagle ‘26, 6-2 in the first set and 6-3 in the second. Similarly, in the second doubles, Patel and Shetty triumphed over Pratham Gandhi ‘26 and Cameron Williams ‘27 of Wardlaw-Hartridge in straight sets with scores of 6–1 and 6–3.
With regards to the four game winning streak the Eagles had to start the season, Srinivasan said “The season has been really great so far, as it started off on a great note. From match one, I recognized that I’m so happy to play alongside wonderful teammates and against other schools. This winning streak helped instill belief in me that we can win more matches and get a good seed for the state tournament.”
Like a storm after many sunny days, Edison’s four-match winning streak unfortunately came to an end with a loss against Monroe. The match started very upbeat in the first singles, where Premkumar displayed his prowess in the first singles, beating his opponent, Anish Korrapati ‘24, in two sets with scores of 6–1 and 6-2 respectively. Srinivasan followed Premkumar’s footsteps by also beating his opponent, Tanish Raha ‘24, winning 6-1 in the first set and 6-3 in the second . Despite their brilliant start, the Eagles started losing hope as Edison’s Advik Mishra ‘27 got swept by Anish Allada ‘25 in two sets.
Unfortunately, the boys were not able to recover from this loss, with both doubles pairs losing in tight matches. In the first doubles, Wu and Urakov were pitted against Monroe’s Amogh Shetty ‘26 and Rinav Guntaka ‘26. The first set was won by Monroe by a score of 6-2. In the second the Edison duo tried their best to make a comeback by bringing the set to a tiebreaker. However, their efforts were in vain because Monroe won the tiebreaker with seven points to Edison’s two. The meet came down to the last match, the second doubles game. Ultimately, Shetty and Patel lost in straight sets to Aryan Agarwal ‘24 and Sahishnav Grende ‘25 from Monroe, leading to Edison’s first loss in this season.
This setback acted as an impetus to work even harder for the following matches. This motivation could be clearly seen when Edison swept their next opponent: Highland-Park.
Against Highland Park, the first singles was dominated by Premkumar, who won against his opponent, Ethan Chen ‘25, in two sets with scores of 6-0 and 6-1 respectively. Similarly, Edison accumulated another win in the second singles. Srinivasan also had a decisive victory, defeating Highland Park’s Jacob Sohn ‘27 in two sets that read 6-0 and 6-4. The already flaming fire was further fueled when Edison’s Ashmit Gandhi ‘26 triumphed over Udi Yu ‘27 in straight sets.
In the first doubles match-up, Wu and Urakov swept Highland-Park’s Henry Roesener ‘24 and Diego Martinez ‘25 in both sets. The match was finished in style with a win from Shetty and Patel in the second doubles. The duo beat Josh Montero-Reyes ‘25 and Sean Pirri ‘26 in two sets with scores of 6-0 and 6-2.
Edison swept Highland Park again in their next match-up. Premkumar proved his consistency, defeating Chen with the same exact scores as their previous meet. Srinivasan, outdoing his previous performance against Highland Park, was once again pitted against Sohn; Srinivasan ultimately prevailed, defeating his opponent with scores of 6-1 in the first set and 6-2 and the second. This time, Edison chose to select Elango to play the third singles. Elango, in his first game back, won dominantly by double bageling Kai Silverman ‘25. The doubles match-up once again featured great shotmaking from Urakov and Wu, who defeated Yu and Martinez with scores of 6-1 and 6-0 in the first and second set respectively.
Recently, the Eagles played against South Brunswick, where Edison was greeted with their second loss this season. Edison’s only win in this match was in the third singles, where Srinivasan, keeping his undefeated record intact, double bageled South Brunswick’s Raj Sivalenka ‘24 in two sets.
“The team put in hard work and improved during the off season as they met this task head on,” said Head Coach Mr. Wesley Smith. “This year, the boys aim to defend their title from last year as the winners of the White Division” Edison’s next match is against Wardlaw-Hartridge on Tuesday, May 21, where they look to get another victory to enhance their already commendable seasonal record.