STM's Hunter Madigan places third at state
May 30-PALATINE - Hunter Madigan has crossed paths with Wheaton St. Francis senior Umar Bajwa on multiple occasions.
They've played in the same tournaments. Bajwa had competed against several of Madigan's friends.
Their first meeting, the first time they squared off across the net from one another, came with real stakes in Saturday's third-place match at the Class 1A state tournament.
Madigan put all of the intel he gathered from watching Bajwa play - particularly what he could glean from his friends with head-to-head experience - to good use Saturday. A 6-2, 6-3 victory and a third-place medal was the result for the Champaign St. Thomas More senior.
Expecting a grind-it-out matchup against Bajwa, who routinely plays and excels in longer matches, Madigan was able to ride a strong serve to a straight-set sweep.
"I was just able to take control of the point right from the beginning," Madigan said. "I was really never behind because of my serve. He was never able to use that against me. ... To me, it seemed like I was more confident in what I could do than he was. I got up a little bit, and he just struggled a little more to find his rhythm."
Madigan had to bounce back Saturday after dropping his semifinal match 6-0, 6-0 to Chicago Latin's Kiyan Alsikafi that came on the heels of a grueling three-set win in the quarterfinals against Fenwick's Michael Doherty.
The semifinal loss didn't trip up Madigan. Alsikafi played as well as anyone the St. Thomas More senior had gone up against on the court. That Bajwa was the complete opposite as an opponent fueled Madigan's confidence for Saturday's third-place match, and he capped his career with his best-ever finish at the state tournament.
"That was my goal the whole season to get a state medal and hopefully a top four, which I did end up getting," said Madigan, who went 1-2 as a freshman at state and 2-2 as a sophomore. He also went 2-2 as a junior, but won his first two matches for the first time.
"Most of the people I played hadn't been in some of those situations before," Madigan continued about his 5-1 run in the tournament this year. "I was more comfortable there. My closest match (the 7-6 (4), 6-7 (2), 6-3 victory against Doherty in the quarterfinals) I ended up winning because my opponent couldn't play the whole time. He was just exhausted. It was helpful having that experience and knowing what I needed to succeed."
Madigan's third-place finish was the best among the area tennis players at the state tournament.
Centennial's Samith Ramanath dropped a tight match in the Class 1A consolation bracket semifinals. The Chargers freshman won the first set, but ultimately fell to Deerfield's Steven Jiang, who bounced back to win 3-6, 6-4, (10-7). Glenwood's Talha Arshad and Aarav Patel also beat the Uni High doubles team of Kyle Fan and Jameson LaFave 6-1, 4-6, (11-9) in the consolation semifinals.
The Champaign Central's doubles team of Daniel Canivez and Sohum Gurrapu also played in the final day of the Class 2A tournament. The Maroons duo rallied to beat Oak Park-River Forest's Alex Rekucki and Nick Vizzione 4-6, 6-4, (11-9) in the consolation semifinals before losing the fifth-place match to Hinsdale Central's Logan Milton and Amir Khan 6-3, 6-1.
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