Everything was tough Saturday for Mountain View junior Shreya Bhatra.
The top singles seed at the 3A district tournament at Club Green Meadows needed five sets and two tiebreakers before collecting her first champions’ medal.
She beat Prairie sophomore Emma Tuttle 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the final after getting past Prairie’s Sarah Shirley in the semifinals 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3).
Both matches lasted two-plus hours.
So what was the toughest thing about Saturday?
“Just getting through,” Bhatra said. “There were lots of mental setbacks, but I knew how to bounce back.”
Tuttle, a good friend of Bhatra’s, beat Evergreen’s Kaytlynn Kolb 6-2, 6-2 in her semifinal, getting off the steamy courts much sooner than Bhatra.
With 45 minutes between the semifinal and final, Bhatra said she just sat down, didn’t move and had her dad do everything from getting food to providing leg rubdowns.
Tuttle started the final with a break of serve and rushed off to claim the set.
“There’s a reason you get a second and third set,” Bhatra said. “It lets you overcome a slow start.”
Like Tuttle in the first set, Bhatra broke serve to open the second set and rolled from there.
Following a short break before the decisive set, Bhatra bolted out to a 4-0 lead, broke serve to get to 5-1, and finished the match with a winner down the line.
“If I could give any tennis player advice it would be to breathe in and breathe out,” Bhatra said. “It really helps.”
It seemed as if Mountain View players were on every court as the day continued, and no wonder since the Thunder dominated league play (11-0) and carried it into the district tournament for a team title.
Three Thunder doubles teams reached the semifinals with seniors Anna Lu and Grace Garmire winning the title over teammates Caroline Johnson, a senior, and Elin Bertheau, a junior, 7-6 (1), 7-5.
Mountain View seniors Molly Doyle and Keiana Bonawitz placed third to earn a bi-district berth as the top three advanced to next week’s tournament at Tacoma where state berths are on the line.
Sarah Shirley of Prairie placed third in singles for the bi-district berth.
