While disappointed that he didn’t make it past the round of 16, Hart was relieved to finally get a chance to rest.
“I was really, really tired. I wasn’t feeling well and I hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before,” he said. “It (illness) came at a bad time. It’s too bad that it was not the week before (open week).”
Hart breezed past North Oldham junior Tyler Kilambi 6-0, 6-0 Thursday morning to set up a second round match with Highlands senior Drew Freyberger.
Hart slipped in the first set, falling 4-6, but he caught his second wind in the second set, rallying to win 6-2, 6-2 and advance to the third round.
“(Heat) got to me pretty quickly in the first set and I was kind of worried about it,” Hart said. “But I knew I had chances in the first set and felt I could connect on those the second set. After I got up 3-0 in the second set, I felt like I could get him.”
Hart’s success at battling through his illness came to an end in the next round as True won in straight sets.
“(Illness) is what got him. He just ran out of gas,” Lincoln coach Allen Lewis said. “I am very proud of him. He gave it everything he had, he just came up a little short.”
Jefferson County teams swept the boys’ titles in the KHSAA state championships, with St. Xavier winning both the boys singles and team titles and Kentucky Country Day taking the doubles title.
It was St. X versus St. X in the singles final as Sean Donohue defeated teammate Alex Gornet 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Donohue, a junior, was seeded No. 2 in the tournament while Gornet, a senior, was No. 3.
Donohue knocked off Lexington Catholic’s Zach Lewis to reach the championship match and Gornet knocked off defending state champ Beck Pennington of Greenwood.
The St. X Tigers defeated Lone Oak 3-0 to claim their fourth straight state team title.
Kentucky Country Day’s Matt Browne and Collier Bouchillon defeated the top-seeded team of Emerson Walsh and Randy Strause of Trinity 6-4, 6-4 to win the boys’ doubles title. Walsh and Strause had just defeated Browne and Bouchillon the week before in the finals of the 7th Region Tournament.
In the girls’ state tennis tournament, Madie Cook of Notre Dame defeated Kennedy Womack of Rose Hill 6-4, 6-4 in singles, Sacred Heart’s Katherine English and Caitlin Hanley defeated Notre Dame’s Alyssa Kennedy and Catriona Shaughnessy 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 in doubles and Lone Oak edged out Notre Dame 3-2 for the girls’ team title.
