Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
After battling each other for two hours in the 9th Region girls tennis singles final on Friday, Covington Latin senior Sara Watanabe and Dixie Heights junior Tapanee Boonyawat hugged each other like long-time friends and sat down on the court to talk.
Actually, they’ve only known each other for a few months. Boonyawat is a foreign exchange student from Thailand who began practicing tennis with Watanabe last August at Five Seasons Sports Club in Crestview Hills.
They’ve spent so much time together on the court that they expected a close match in the region final and that’s exactly how it turned out.
After they each won a set to force a tiebreaker, Watanabe came out on top, 15-13, to win her third consecutive region singles title.
“We practice like literally every day together,” Watanabe said, “We knew our strengths and weaknesses, so that’s why it was a very close match.”
Watanabe won the first set, 6-4, and jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the second set before Boonyawat swept the next five games to come away with a 6-2 decision. In the tiebreaker, Watanabe took a 9-6 lead and was on the brink of ending the match before her opponent scored three straight points to tie it.
The marathon match at Boone Woods Park ended with Watanabe getting the final two points on returns into the net by Boonyawat.
“At the end, we were both pretty consistent, but overall I think the wind kind of impacted us both a little bit,” Watanabe said. “I mean, we both played decent, but I think we both could’ve played better.”
Boonyawat, whose family nickname is Nice, said she didn’t know Dixie Heights had a tennis team when she enrolled there as an exchange student. She was content with just playing tennis at Five Seasons before getting a chance to compete on the high school level.
The teen-ager from Thailand was so successful during the regular season that she received the No. 2 seed behind Watanabe for the region singles tournament.
It was no surprise that the new friends faced each other in the region final and they made it one of the closest title matches in tournament history.
“To all the girls that come from Five Seasons, Nice, as an addition to our club, was really good for all of us to become better and we all improved,” Watanabe said. “I think we’re on the same level of tennis skills-wise, so it came down to a really good match between us.”
Both region finalists qualify for the girls state tennis tournament that begins May 30. Watanabe made it to the state semifinals the last two years and expects to be among the top seeds once again. There’s no telling where Boonyawat will be seeded for the state tournament, which will mark the end of her student exchange visit. She will return to Thailand after the season is completed.
“I’m glad I made it,” Boonyawat said of the state tournament. “It’s my first year and probably my last year, too.”
Watanabe, who will join the University of Cincinnati women’s tennis team next season, would like to end her high school career playing against her new-found friend from another country in the state final.
“That would be a good match once again,” Watanabe said. “I think we can both make it at least to the quarterfinals and that gets us to the tough matches.”
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