Lee’s Tanner DeVarennes returns with win over Lenox’s Vickery

LENOX – Berkshire County boys’ tennis MVP Tanner DeVarennes returned to the courts on Monday to help propel his team to a 3-2 win over the Millionaires.

Out with a torn ligament in his ankle that had him sidelined since the start of the season, DeVarennes, who is still not on top of his game, defeated Lenox’s no. 1 singles player, Andrew Vickery, 6-2, 6-2.

“Having our leader gives everybody more confidence going out there,” said Lee Head Coach John Perry after the win.

Lee won the three singles matches, as no. 2 Andy Consolati beat Tom Villetto 7-5, 6-1, and no. 3 Jack Harding, who returned this season from a leg injury, defeated Henrik Palmer 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

DeVarennes, who was ousted in the semi-finals of the Western Mass. singles tournament last spring with a wrist injury, appeared hampered by the ankle from the start, as both his forehand and backhand winners were not as consistent as in the past.

“It’s definitely been a rough start – but we are going to work through it,” DeVarennes said. “I was just going for my back hand/return winners, and I could see that they weren’t there – I just started letting [Vickery] make the mistakes.”

Vickery won his first two serving games in set one, but struggled with his serve there on out, quickly falling behind 5-2.

“I struggled with my serve today – I hadn’t played in three days, and I think the wind threw my toss off, because I don’t miss into the net usually,” Vickery said. “I have some work to do on that.”

DeVarennes utilized the wind throughout the first set, using drop shots and putting spins on his returns in order to get Vickery to create unforced errors.

“I saw in warm-ups that he can get tired easy on long points – I just decided to lengthen the points up and just make him battle up there instead of just serving winners,” DeVarennes said.

Vickery, while trailing 5-2 in the first, went up 40-0 on DeVarennes’ serve in the deciding game, before DeVarennes battled back to deuce on an unforced error and took the set on a winning serve.

In the second set, Vickery won the opening game on his serve, but DeVarennes went up 5-1 by attacking Vickery again with soft drop shots and spins.

“I don’t think he played to the best of his abilities today,” Vickery said. “I think he was pushing a bit because of his ankle and that threw him off. I came out mentally expecting a game with a lot of rallies and the game turned into a game of serving – he played smarter today.”

Vickery battled back to 5-2, before DeVarennes won the sixth game on a match point that was a questionable and controversial winner down the line by Vickery.

“I can definitely get better when my ankle gets better, but I am happy the way I am playing right now,” DeVarennes said.

As far as competition goes, Lee (now 2-1 overall) and DeVarennes are looking forward to matching up against Berkshire County favorite Mt. Greylock and its returning top-ranked player, Rohan Shastri.

“I am really looking forward to playing [Shastri] – I think it’s going to be a brand of tennis that Berkshire County hasn’t seen for a while,” DeVarennes said.

Posted by Tim Davis on April 25, 2013. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry