Tal Nizan and Patrick Sheehan-Delany’s bid for a state doubles title ended Thursday when the two Ridgefield players lost in the Class LL state finals in West Hartford.
Nizan and Sheehan-Delany, who were seeded first in the doubles field, fell to the second-ranked Staples duo of Max Zimmerman and Josh Moskovitz by scores of 6-3, 6-4.
After playing in the top-two singles spots for Ridgefield during the regular season, Nizan and Sheehan-Delany joined forces to play doubles in the Class LL tournament, in which teams get points when their players win singles or doubles matches.
Nizan and Sheehan-Delany received a first-round bye and then won four straight matches to reach the finals. They defeated unseeded Peter Stevens and Matt Yang of Westhill, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round; 15th seeds Harshavardhan Lingareddy and Jared Pepper of Amity, 6-1, 6-0, in the third round; eighth seeds Jason Blankfein and Brenden Price of Staples, 6-3, 6-2, in the quarterfinals; and fifth seeds Gabriel Betancur and Nicholas Sabatelli of Amity, 6-0, 4-6, 6-3, in the semifinals.
Moskovitz and Zimmerman also needed three sets to win their semifinal match, beating sixth seeds William Cannon and William Graham of Fairfield Prep, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
By reaching the finals, Nizan and Sheehan-Delany earned Class LL All-State honors.
No other Ridgefield singles players or doubles teams advanced past the second round in the tournament, which took place at Hall and Conard high schools and Yale University.
Amity finished first in the team standings with 24 points, two more than runner-up Staples. Fairfield Ludlowe was third with 15 points.
In a meeting of co-top seeds, Jason Seidman of Amity edged Richard Ciamarra of Xavier, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4, to win the singles title.
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