Michaels Take Home District Titles

Michael Moore and Michael Kusznerko each started the summer off on a huge note, winning the Chicago District Championships held June 12-17 at eight sites across the Chicago Area.

Moore, who also captured the title in 2008, breezed into the semifinals by winning his first four matches in straight sets and only dropping 13 games. In the semifinals Moore dropped the first set 6-7 to Augie Bloom, before storming back and taking the next two sets 6-3, 6-3. The finals were a rematch of the IHSA State Championships held two weeks earlier, and just as in that match Bazarnik took the first set.

Playing on his home courts at the Glenbrook Racquet Club, Moore unleashed ace after ace to take the second set and even the match at 3-6, 6-4. Leading 2-1 in the third set Moore went up 0-40 on Bazarnik’s serve. After miss-hitting a forehand to take the score to 15-40, Michael forced Bazarnik into a forehand error to take the game and go up a break. Each player held for the next four games and Moore served for the championship at 5-3. Ensuring that Bazarnik couldn’t get back into the match Moore immediately hit three un-returnable serves to race out to a 40-0 lead. At match point Moore forced Blake into an error to take the title.
In the Boy’s 12s draw Michael Kusznerko ran through the draw winning all six of his matches in straight sets. Kuszernko took out the #11, #6, #4, and #2 seed in route to the title.

Nearly 1 of every 7 participants in the 490 player District Championships trained at the HTA this season, in addition to the players listed above, the following competitors represented the academy: Brian Alden, Bill Angel, Emily Barretta, Jeremy Barretta, Johnathon Benedetto, Quentin Benedetto, Ben Bleier, Ryan Buxbaum, Drew Campbell, Julian Childers, Daniel Choi, Scott Drier, Ted Eberle, Colin Egerter, Thomas Fawcett, Cammy Frei, Lauren Frei, Etham Frenkel, Luke Gensburg, Claire Golden, Josh Greenberg, Nick Hamburger, Conrad Harron, Kenny Herrmann, Aron Hiltzik, Ben Hoogland, Sam Hoogland, Nate Jacobson, Robert Jacobson, Maddy Kahn, Dennis Kontorovich, David Korobov, Michael Korobov, Courtney Lang, Max MacKinnon, Chas Mayer, Michael McFadden, Joel Meyer, Kaitlin Mogentale, David Myers, Vinnie Nagaraj, Rebecca Newmark, Blake Oslan, Arthur Ozga, Kevin Prescott, Alexa Prosniewski, Alex Rachlin, Alyssa Ritchie, Patrick Rourke, Evan Ruda, Sarah Rudo, William Sauser, Andrew Scholnick, Michael Sellitto, Jake Sheehan, Robert Stineman, William Szokol, Grace Tapak, Chris Vaselopulos, Brandon Wozniczka, Jooho Yu, Vladimir Zverkovskiy.

“It was incredible that over 65 players who trained at our academy this year participated in Chicago’s biggest event,” said Owner Ken Herrmann. “The two Michaels each had excellent tournaments and I expect them to have great results at the Midwest Closed.”