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Moving On: Western boys tennis advances past Charlottesville

Photo by Bart Isley

Freshman Gordon Fairborn is one of the youngest players on the Western Albemarle boys’ tennis roster. He has been dealing with an elbow injury that has limited his serving ability. In the regional semifinals against Charlottesville on Tuesday afternoon, Fairborn was shifted from the No. 3 match to the No. 2 match with Western’s normal No. 2 Damien Heller-Chen out with a shoulder injury. 

 

Despite the circumstances, the task was far from too much for the freshman to handle. 

 

“Gordie” Fairborn defeated Charlottesville’s Luke Frank, 6-0, 6-0, and the Warriors swept the visiting Black Knights to advance to the finals of the regional tennis tournament. 

 

“He moved up from No. 3 to No. 2 and he played a guy (Luke Frank) that keeps a lot of balls in play,” said Western Albemarle head coach Randy Hudgins. “For him to win like he did, not losing a game to that guy, is pretty impressive.”

 

Despite not dropping a single game in either set, Fairborn’s match was the last of the six matches to finish, as almost every game was tightly contested between Fairborn and Frank.

 

“As a ninth grader, he’s one of our youngest kids but he’s got a lot of upside in terms of potential to play Division I tennis one day,” Hudgins said of Fairborn. 

 

Fairborn’s teammates also took care of business. Tobin Yates defeated Alex Brandon, 6-0, 6-3, in the No. 1 match. Yates won the first set easily but Brandon put up a good fight in the early part of the second set. 

 

“I started attacking more and putting pressure on him and that helped me take control of the match,” Yates said after the match. 

 

Bryce Duncan and Tanner Segraves joined Fairborn by defeating their opponents without dropping a game. Sophomore Luke Kielbasa dropped only one game in his victory over Jay Conklin. 

 

“He’s playing great tennis,” Hudgins said of Kielbasa. “He’s improved dramatically in the last nine months. He’d probably be playing in the top two or three on most high school tennis teams.”

 

Charlie Miller got the victory in the No. 6 spot with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Pieter Halverson-Taylor to complete the sweep. 

 

With the win, the Warriors will advance to the regional final on Thursday against Wilson Memorial. 

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