Columbus North’s Hank Lin returns a shot at No. 1 singles during the state quarterfinals Friday against South Bend St. Joseph at North Central.
Chris Williams | For The Republic
On paper, the state singles title chase appears to be in Hank Lin’s favor.
The Columbus North senior will hit the court for the last matches of his high school tennis career Friday and Saturday when he competes in the state singles tournament at Park Tudor.
Lin will play in the quarterfinals against Munster’s Joseph Foster at 2 p.m. Friday. If Lin prevails, he will play in a semifinal match between the winner of Terre Haute North’s James Belmar and Fort Wayne Carroll’s Andrew Jamison at 10 a.m. Saturday. The championship match is slated for around 2 p.m. Saturday.
Lin has played two opponents that are remaining among the nine contenders, Belmar and Center Grove’s Tyler Lane, who is the favorite on the other side of the bracket. Lin blanked Belmar 6-0, 6-0 and topped Lane 6-0, 6-1 during regular-season matchups.
Hank Lin
Lin is considered the favorite going into the weekend, but he isn’t going to overlook his opponents and will play it one match at a time.
“I’m basically going to go into every match imagining that I’m playing with someone that I know really well. I need to strike the ball really well and play one ball at a time,” Lin said.
Lin was poised to win state last year when he rolled through the competition leading up to the state championship match but fell short in the title match and settled for runner-up. It was his only singles loss the past two years for Lin, who has a record of 46-1.
“If I can put in more effort, then I will see more growth, more progression with my tennis skills, so I definitely put that into consideration this year. I trained a lot this summer,” he said.
Lin learned many lessons since that defeat in the state finals last year and doesn’t want history to repeat itself.
“I’m trying to put myself in certain situations to where pressure takes place,” Lin said. “Mentally, I’ve been watching game footage or the notes that some coaches have been taking on different types of players. It’s working and staying calm under pressure that I took from last year because I think last year, I was just feeling the nerves were getting to me, and I wasn’t really playing myself.”
Winning the state title his senior year would be the perfect ending to his illustrious career.
“I think everything he has done from last year to this year has gotten him to this point to try to get to the next step and be champion instead of runner-up,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “Most people say he is the favored player in the state this year. Last year, he probably wasn’t, but he was in the top grouping, and this year, he may be. It’ll put a little more pressure on him in that aspect.”
