Worn-out Cheng settles for second at State

Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, June 8, 2005

A three-hour semifinal match costs her in the afternoon finale.

Whitney Cheng followed her ambition to win the state tennis tournament all the way to the final match on the UW campus Saturday afternoon.

There, she was defeated by Jenny Lewellen of Evergreen High School in White Center, 6-2, 6-4 in the championship at the University of Washington’s Nordstrom Tennis Center.

She took second place, finishing 3-1 at the tournament and winning 29 straight on the year until her final match.

Closing out her career with her trademark mixture of grit and grace, Cheng made a courageous stand in the final match, but could not find the energy to overcome fatigue and a bad set of blisters on her racquet hand.

“I was pooped,” said Cheng, with a casual smile on her face after the loss.

Mercer Island edged Hanford 15-14 for the team title. Bainbridge finished tied for fifth with Seattle Prep and Mark Morris at nine points.

Cheng was cheered on by her classmates and other tennis friends.

Shouts of “We love you, Whitney” rang out throughout the final day. Even Lakeside’s Peter Kung came over to lend vocal support, shortly after winning his fourth consecutive state title.

After virtually cruising through the first two rounds on Friday, Cheng had to be at her best for the final.

But trouble came in Cheng’s three-hour semifinal win, completed just over an hour before the championship match.

Cheng had to outlast Carolin Baierle, a Hanford junior and exchange student from Frankfurt, Germany, in a marathon said to be the best match of the tournament.

After winning the first set 6-4, she stumbled in the second losing 5-7. Going down 4-1 to begin the third set, Cheng climbed back in, dodging several match points before forcing the third set tie-breaker in which she prevailed.

“That showed a lot of what Whitney is about,” coach Mike Anderson said.

But it left little in reserve for the final in which she faced Lewellen, who entered the tournament with an unbeaten record of her own and hadn’t lost a game until her three-set semifinal win over Molly Knox, the younger sister of last year’s state champ.

Cheng quickly went down 3-0 in losing the first set, but led 4-3 in the second before Lewellen took three straight games to prevail.

“I thought she gave it her all,” Anderson said of Cheng’s performance. “She had two chances to draw even (against Lewellen) and I think it could have been a good platform to build on.

“But she just couldn’t get over the hump. I think she was spent from that intense semifinal.”

Cheng (29-1) wraps up a stellar career at Bainbridge, where her 88-13 record will stand as a school best, 53-3 over the past two seasons.

She took second at state this year to go along with her first SeaKing District title, receiving the Jill Curran Award recognizing leadership in the sport on her way to the Metro League crown.

She plans to attend the University of Washington, where any tennis she plays will be for her love of the game.