MASON — Shyla Aggarwal is the first state champion in Mason girls tennis singles history.
Aggarwal faced Whitehouse Anthony Wayne junior Lilly Black in the Ohio High School Athletic Association's Division I state championship match and won, 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-2.
"I'm really happy. I've been working really hard all season and so has the team," Aggarwal said.
The match was a rematch of last year's DI singles state semifinals, in which Aggarwal won 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, setting up last year's runner-up finish.
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It's been exactly a year since Aggarwal lost that match, and she's been unstoppable in singles competition ever since. This year for Mason, she had a 26-0 record in singles matches, capping her tournament run with a championship win Saturday at the Lindner Family Sports Complex.
"I'm thrilled for her," Mason coach Mike Reid said. "She's a great kid. Fantastic tennis player with a lot of heart, so we couldn't have a better first champ at Mason."
The redemption didn't come easily. Black proved to be game for the championship when she took the opening set with a tiebreaker, coming back from a 5-4 deficit to earn the next three points and take the set.
As Aggarwal walked to the back wall between points in the second set, she said to herself, "patience." She thought she was pressing, and just uttering those words to herself seemed to flip a switch.
"I think the first set, I was being a little more impatient and I wasn't playing as smart and trying to go for things that I shouldn't have," Aggarwal said. "I think the next two sets, I really worked on trying to be patient and wait for the right ball and making more first serves."
After dropping the first game of the second set, Aggarwal turns things around almost immediately, winning the next four games in a row and not allowing Black to reach more than a point in any of those four games. She went on to easily win that set, 6-2, setting up the winner-take-all third set.
That set was closer than the 6-2 win for Aggarwal might indicate. Half of those eight games in the final set reached deuce before Aggarwal finished off the history-making win. She again credited her patience and improved focus in the last two sets for being able to come away with the clutch points needed for the win.
"I think (patience) definitely helped. It's something I've been working on also," Aggarwal said. "I think a lot of it was just, who can play smarter? Because Lilly and I are both, like, literally the exact same, so I think it just came down to who can play the smartest and who can stay grounded."
In the end, Aggarwal won the final three games to take the third set and the championship.
Once the two players were done exchanging post-match pleasantries, Aggarwal's teammates greeted her, chanting "Franchise" at the junior singles champion. She then headed to the main court, where she completed the final piece of the DI singles bracket, slapping her name on the spot marked "Champion."
Aggarwal handily won her semifinals match earlier in the day, beating North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher, 6-1, 6-1.
Mason's doubles team of Anna Tonkal and Risha Chada lost their semifinals match against Rocky River Magnificat's Kayra Koprulu and Caroline Moritz, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
Mason will compete in the team tennis tournament Sunday, but in the meantime, Aggarwal is planning on resting up and enjoying her win after playing about five hours of tennis in one day.
"First, this was for myself, so now I've gotta carry it on for the team," Aggarwal said. "So that's what I'll be doing ... And a lot of Advil."
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