Two highly experienced freshmen joined the boys’ tennis team this year and are playing top positions on the varsity ladder.
Freshmen Cengiz Aksu and Dominic Barretto have both been playing competitive levels of tennis since a young age, and now are bringing their talents to the Redwood courts. According to coach Paul Markowitz, the two will be playing in the third and fourth seed on the team.
Last Wednesday, Barretto got his first chance to showcase his skills by playing in the number one singles position. In a 6-1 and 6-0 victory, he beat Josh Bernstein, a senior from San Marin who was MCAL player of the year in 2012.
According to the Tennis Recruiting Network, Barretto is ranked 6th in NorCal and 31st in California for his age division.
Asku was also able to display his talent early on in the tennis season when he played third position singles against Terra Linda. He played Jerod Mah, who was first team All League last year, and beat him 6-2 and 6-3.
“Cengiz is one of one of the most intelligent tennis players that I have ever seen step onto the court,” Markowitz said. “He is able to tailor his game to beat whichever opponent he is playing. That is something that I don’t see a lot from high school players and it is something that has really impressed me about him.”
Barretto and Aksu have known each other for a few years because they both competed in United States Tennis Association (USTA) tournaments all over the Bay Area, and said that they are excited to play with each other on the same team now.
Aksu began playing tennis when he was six years old. The following year, his family moved to Turkey and he continued to play and advance his skills.
He was selected to play the second position on the junior Turkish national team in 2010 and since then he has been training competitively. With that team, he travelled to England, the Czech Republic, and many other foreign countries for national tournaments. That year, the team got fourth place in a championship tournament.
“This made me realize how hard tennis is and how hard we need to train, every single day, as hard as you can and give it everything you’ve got,” Aksu said.
Five years later, Aksu and his family moved back the the United States where he continued his training at the Mt. Tam Racquet Club and practiced one hour and 15 minutes with an additional 40 minutes of physical conditioning every day before the Redwood tennis started.
In games, Aksu said he plays mostly at the baseline, but comes up to net occasionally to guarantee an easy point.
Barretto also began playing at the young age of nine. From day one, Barretto said that tennis was a family affair in his house. Barretto’s father began coaching him and his two brothers, Paul and Marco and brought the three boys to tournaments at young ages.
“The practices weren’t very intense, but the tournaments were,” he said. “But [my brothers and I] did a lot better in tournaments than we did in practice, so we started to practice much harder during our practices. For me, being a good tennis player is not as much about the hard work, it’s about wanting it and fighting for it.”
Markowitz said he believed that Barretto has been so successful at the junior tennis level because he plays a highly aggressive game and he is able to generate lots of topspin on his shots.
“[Barretto] has this ability to dictate the tempo through his personality out on the court,” Markowitz said. “It’s an enormous asset to make sure that the match is being played according to your rules, your pace, and your tempo.”
At the beginning of this school year, Barretto and his brothers went to Eagle Fulstar, a prestigious tennis academy in Santa Clara. Aksu said that he is considering transferring there in hopes of bringing his tennis game to the next level.
Barretto said that he thinks the opportunity to play with Cengiz will help to improve both of their games.
“Both of us are more of individual players and as long as we stay focused on our games, then we will do really well,” he said.
