Sectional tennis: Wadsworth's Brandon Ball, Vincent Gambacinni roll to quarterfinals

MONTROSE — Wednesday was a good day — and morning and evening — for the fourth-seeded doubles team of Brandon Ball and Vincent Gambaccini and the rest of the Wadsworth boys tennis team.On the first day of the Springside Division I Sectional, which started at 8:30 a.m. and didn't end until almost 8:30 p.m., Ball and Gambaccini won two matches in impressive fashion to advance to the quarterfinals Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Springside Racquet & Fitness Club.The only other player from a Medina County school to reach the quarterfinals was Medina freshman singles player Malachi Pimpo, who also won two matches.A win in the quarterfinals guarantees the top-four finish needed to advance to the Northeast District, with sectional semifinal, final and third-place matches to be played Saturday morning at Springside.The left-handed Ball, a junior who played first singles for the Grizzlies in the regular season, and Gambaccini, a right-handed senior who manned the second singles spot, are in their third year playing doubles together at sectionals. Two years ago they lost their first match and last season they won one before being eliminated."The last two seasons didn't end the way we wanted," Ball said. "We thought we could have done better. Advancing to districts would be great."The Wadsworth duo opened with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over North Royalton's Arya Patel and Nakul Sriram, then downed Revere's Truman Voris and Deven Gupta by the same scorre. The Grizzlies will meet Hudson's unseeded Chase Pinnow and Matt Galosi in the quarters."It would mean a lot," Gambaccini said of earning a district berth. "Coming into this season I didn't have high expectations of going this far, so to exceed my expectations is huge."Wadsworth also got doubles victories from the No. 2 team of Robert Beatty and Cam Gorog and No. 3 entrant of Luke Oliver and Jack Johnson. Both lost their next matches, but the advancement of Ball and Gambaccini was never in doubt."We've played together at sectionals for a while, so we know what we like to do and don't like to do," Gambaccini said. "We know where each other likes to go, so that helps."The Grizzliers were their most effective at the net Wednesday, as both players hit powerful overhead blasts that had no chance of coming back."We just try to focus on setting that up with a good shot," Ball said. "Then we try to be as aggressive as possible.""We want to put it away," Gambaccini added. "That's the goal. The quicker we end the point, the better. That way it doesn't give them a chance to get back in the point."While Ball and Gambaccini used power, Pimpo relied on patience, savvy, consistency and passing shots. The 15-year-old opened with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Tallmadge's Kostas Carr, then made every big shot he needed to make to record a 6-4, 6-4 win over Cuyahoga Falls' Ryan Cargould, who was playing his third match of the day.It did not come easy, though. Pimpo trailed 4-1 in the opening set against Cargould, but refused to give up and ran off five straight games."I was feeling a little nervous, but I knew I could do it," he said. "I knew I could come back, but I was definitely worried."At the beginning, I don't have an idea of what my opponent is going to do. I have to figure it out. After I was down, I realized I had to not hit it right to him (at the net) and hit it deep. It worked and I came back."In the second set, with fans shivering under blankets, Pimpo broke serve to go up 3-2. Four more service breaks followed until Pimpo finally held to close the match.Next up is a quarterfinal meeting against Hudson's second-seeded Zelin Shen."I'm going to try to have fun with it and get as many games as I can," Pimpo said.The only other county entrant to win a match was the Medina doubles team of Aiden Yaworski and Stefan Murea. The Bees downed Brunswick's Ben Weers and Josh Owen 7-5, 6-4.The Blue Devils went 0-5 on the day and didn't win a set, but singles player Cotton Meade saved six match points before losing 6-2, 6-4 to Cargould. Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.