Dublin Pleasanton Tennis team scores 2nd in Nationals

The following is a press release from the Dublin Pleasanton Tennis Team.

Local tennis players from the Northern California United States Tennis Association placed second at the prestigious 2024 USTA Nationals Championship, held in San Diego from October 18 to 20 in the Men's Adult 18 and OVER 3.0 category and Men's Team 3.5, taking 5th place at the National Championship. in Orlando.

Dublin Pleasanton Tennis Group consists of players from Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and surrounding areas and is located at the Pleasanton Tennis and Community Park. This year, their Men's 3.0 team finished second at the prestigious United States Tennis Association Nationals Championship in San Diego and their Men's 3.5 team took 5th place at the National Championship in Orlando. This marks the seventh time since 2022 that a team from this group has reached Nationals, including winning the National Championship in 2022, giving more than 70 players the opportunity to compete at the highest level on the National stage. An achievement unheard of even by national standards for any group from one region.

The 3.0 team, captained by Raghu Venna under the mentorship of Narayana Rao Surapaneni, who took teams to the Nationals seven times in the last three years, spent hundreds of hours providing necessary guidance at all stages, built the team with pure raw talent and built them into a team that has competed at the highest level in the country in less than a year. A feat that few teams across the country can dream of with paid coaches and managers. After finding courts at the Pleasanton Tennis Park, a group willing to practice at least four times a week, the group started winning! Raghu Venna himself is a first-time captain and first year in the USTA league, an extremely rare feat for someone new to captaining and taking a team to the National Championship.

They first won a local USTA league championship, then NorCal sectionals, and finally advanced to the national championships in San Diego, a feat shared by only 0.5% percent of USTA league players in their lifetime.

Our mantra at 18+ Nationals was to play fearlessly, give everything you have on the court, have fun and focus on one game at a time, Venna told Patch. They finished third in the regular rounds at the national championship and then played the #2 team to advance to the finals. In the finals they lost to number #1 seed Southern and finished second.

This is a remarkable achievement where many players in his team are over 40 years old, but competed with players half their age and finished as the second best team in the country. USTA brings together 50 states into 17 sections to compete on the national stage, and at the 3.0 level, more than 1,200 teams from across the country participated in the championship.

This is a very big and proud moment for all of NorCal, Tri-Valley and especially for residents and sports fans in Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon, he said in a statement. Our journey to the championship, from nobody a year ago to second place within a year, is truly an inspiration to many in the league.

The 3.5 team led by Narayana Rao Surapaneni and co-captained by Ravindra Samson finished 5th and missed out on reaching the semi-finals by one point. This was back-to-back Nationals for the Surapanenis 3.5 team and within striking distance of winning the championship in 2024, Surapaneni said in a statement. More than 1,500 teams at 3.5 level from all over the country took part in the championship.

This press release was produced by the Dublin Pleasanton Tennis Team. The views expressed are those of the author.