The senior has been to state each of his four years at South but, unfortunately, had never won a match.
On Monday, however, Gonzalez made sure his last trip to the state tourney was his best trip as he won two matches to advance to today’s Class 6A boys’ singles championship final.
Rain delayed the start of play Monday. Gonzalez’s first match had been scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., but instead didn’t get underway until noon.
It didn’t matter, however, as Gonzalez soundly defeated Nick Ryniak of Southlake Carroll in the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-1.
In the semifinals against Jordan Pitts of Austin Lake Travis, Gonzalez came out on fire and cruised to a 6-0 first set win. However, Pitts recovered and won the second set 6-1 to even the match.
“I think he got a little overconfident heading into that second set,” said Harlingen South tennis coach Noe Stillman of Gonzalez. “He let up a little bit and the score showed that.”
But with a chance to head to his first-ever state title match, Gonzalez dug deep in the third set and closed things out with a hard-fought 6-2 victory.
Gonzalez will now face Arman Dave of Southlake Carroll in today’s finals, which are set to begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center and Omar Smith Instructional Tennis Courts at Texas A&M University. Dave defeated Roger Chou of Austin Westlake to advance.
“I think he’s got an excellent shot of winning,” said Stillman. “It’s going to be tough, but if he plays his game he can do it.”
The last Harlingen South player to advance to a state tennis final was Tomas Stillman, who did it in 2010. He came up short in a Class 5A boys’ singles match against Russell Bader of Austin Westlake, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (0).