NATHANIEL MATA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
The rematch is in order.
Sharyland Pioneer’s Joaquin Delgado, the last Rio Grande Valley tennis player competing at the UIL State Tournaments, advanced to the Class 5A boys final on Thursday. He will face Campbell Erwin of San Antonio Alamo Heights for the state championship at 8:30 a.m. Friday in College Station. Last month, Erwin beat Delgado in the Region IV-5A final.
The two were situated on opposite ends of the state bracket, but this is the finals matchup that Delgado said he has been ready for.
“I’m happy, because I’ve been training basically for him this whole month,” Delgado said. “I knew it was very probable we would play each other.”
Delgado’s coach, Rick Rivera, went one step further, saying this is the matchup Delgado wanted.
“He’s real excited,” Rivera said. “He was actually rooting for Campbell, because that’s just the way Joaquin is. When someone beats him, he always wants a second chance at redemption. Here at the state finals, you can’t ask for a bigger and better situation.”
Delgado overcame early nerves in his first match on Thursday and didn’t look back on Day 1 of the UIL 5A state tournament.
He trailed early against his quarterfinal opponent, Frisco Lone Star’s Abhishek Dayal, before storming back to win the match 6-3, 6-0.
Rivera said the slow start wasn’t anything to worry about.
“He started off a little nervous but then totally turned it on in the second set,” Rivera said. “Once he found his groove, he just got stronger as the match went on, and it was amazing to see him play at a high level.”
In his second match, against Michael Azatian from Lubbock, Delgado secured a 7-5, 6-1 win to earn a second straight championship match berth.
Delgado and Rivera both credited conditioning as the reason Delgado wore down his second-round opponent through windy conditions.
“In the second round, it was super windy,” Delgado said. “You had to move your feet a lot, or you were going to be mishitting the ball.”
Rivera said Delgado normally has trouble with lefties. Delgado took a while to break Azatian’s serve, but once he did, he wrapped up the first set. In the second set, Delgado overpowered Azatian to move on to Friday’s final.
“Once he has got that first set, he got that confidence,” Rivera said. “Then he just once again stepped it up, took it to a different level. He finished that guy, I don’t want to say easy, but he was just in the zone in that second set.”
Erwin reached the final via by winning his quarterfinal 6-1, 6-1 and surviving 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in his semifinal on Thursday.
Delgado knows that he won’t have the luxury of getting away with a slow start against Erwin.
“He always starts off strong, so I’m going to have to start strong in this match and not give him any free points,” Delgado said.