Vengeance was delayed.
It wasn’t denied.
The Tennessee High duo of Conner Knox and Owen Rockett staved off Brentwood’s Alex Howard and Drake Hernandez in the AAA state doubles tournament quarterfinals Thursday afternoon, but couldn’t pull off the same trick in the semifinals later in the day, falling to Knoxville West’s Steven Patrick and Harrison Smith.
The Brentwood duo were a part of the squad the Vikings defeated a day earlier to win the state title in the team competition. The Knox West pair, meanwhile, had lost 8-5 to Knox and Rockett last week in the team sectionals when Tennessee High won both doubles matches to make the state tournament for the first time in school history.
On Thursday, however, Patrick and Smith took a 6-3, 6-0 decision to end Knox and Rockett’s bid for a second straight state doubles title.
“It was just their day,” Knox said.
Seniors Knox and Rockett had to pull off a miracle just to reach the semis, rallying after a terrible start in the quarters to defeat Howard and Hernandez 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), (10-8).
“After that match I guess we relaxed a little bit too much,” Knox said. “I guess we weren’t ready at the start of the Knox West match.”
In the first match of the day, Knox and Rockett saved two match points in the second set tiebreaker to force the match into an unusual first-to-10, winner-take-all tiebreaker in lieu of a third set.
The scoring change was made in order to get the day’s schedule back on track after a morning rain delay forced all the matches to start late.
In the deciding tiebreaker, the Tennessee High pair – wearing their 2011 state champions t-shirts earned from the team competition a day earlier – jumped out to an 8-4 lead, lost the next four points and then advanced to the semis by winning the final two.
But Knox and Rockett couldn’t win the crucial points in the semis, dropping a number of game-deciding deuce showdowns to make the final score a deceptively wide margin.
“The score looks a lot worse than it was,” Knox said.
While disappointed in falling two steps short of defending their 2010 doubles title, Knox and Rockett said Wednesday’s team title – the first in school history – took the edge off Thursday’s setback.
“I’m a little upset right now just because we lost that [semifinal match], but the team is what we really wanted to get,” Knox said.
“The team, that’s just big,” Rockett added.
Knox will move onto ETSU next year where he plans to walk on to the tennis squad. Rockett will attend the University of Tennessee, but doesn’t plan on playing at the varsity level.
Although they won’t be able to win a third state title today when the doubles finals are contested, the pair will still leave Tennessee High as the most decorated tennis players in school history.
“Conner and I won one doubles title and one team title,” Rockett said, “so it’s not that we can ask for too much else.”
nhubbard@bristolnews.com | Twitter: @Hubbard_BHCSprt | (276) 645-2543
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