When Methacton’s Chelsea Lian and Anika Suresh both fell short at last month’s girls tennis PAC Singles Tournament, the duo didn’t pout or sulk — not when they knew a chance at redemption would soon arrive.
Lian and Suresh reconvened for the league’s Doubles Tournament this week at Perkiomen Valley, winning their opening three rounds on Wednesday before capturing the semifinals and championship on Friday. They defeated Upper Merion’s Chloe Doan and Lily Hamric in the semis (6-2, 6-0) before ousting Phoenixville’s Vivona Xu and Elise Pham in the final (7-5, 6-0).
As the top two singles players on the PAC’s current first-place team, Lian and Suresh do not train in doubles together, or even dabble independently of one another. They do, however, train at the same tennis facility outside of school and have become exceptionally close the last two seasons as members of Methacton’s varsity squad.
It was that chemistry that allowed them to navigate through a crowded field full of talented doubles partners.
Not only do they not train doubles together, but “Specifically, we’ve never played together before,” Lian said, “so it was really nice to play with Anika. We’re really close and that helped us be able to win the whole thing. As we played more matches together, we slowly built that connection. We’re also both solid singles players, and that translated into the doubles world.”
They will get to try their luck again at the District 1 Doubles Tournament as the PAC’s top seed later this month, but no matter how that one goes, this championship will only strengthen the bond between senior Suresh and sophomore Lian.
“We’re both really happy,” Suresh said. “We train at the same place year-round and have been talking about this for a while, so to be able to win it means a lot to us. It was really fun playing with Chelsea, and we wanted it from the beginning. It’s my senior year and I wanted to win one PAC tournament, and now we’ve done that.”
Suresh advanced to the semifinals of the PAC Singles Tournament while Lian made it as far as the final, but both lost to Pope John Paul II freshman Elliana DeCicco. The losses stung, but the pair was able to bounce back quickly knowing that they had this opportunity ahead of them, not to mention the fact that they play for a team that is 13-1 overall and 11-0 in PAC matches in 2024.
So, confidence is not in short supply for neither Lian nor Suresh; they just had to refine their approach and figure things out on the fly to conquer the PAC doubles universe.
“I think because we’re really close, we’re able to communicate very well,” Suresh said. “We’re both also very mentally calm and know what to do.”
“I think we were both a little nervous in the final, but mostly excited,” Lian added. “The girls we played from Phoenixville are really solid players and we got down 1-4 and 2-5 in the first set before switching strategy and winning five games in a row. We worked together to be able to win that first set, and then we brought that momentum into the second set.”
For now, Suresh is soaking up every last bit of her successful senior season, and Lian wants to help her teammate and friend get the most out of what remains of her high school tennis career. Now that they figured how to win the PAC as a doubles tandem, the group is playing with house money as it prepares for the district tournament.
“I think it means a lot for both of us,” Lian said. “We continue to grow closer for the district doubles tournament and perhaps we’ll even qualify for states. I’m going to miss her a lot when she goes to college.”
The complete results from Friday’s session are listed below:
Semi-finals:
Chelsea Lian/Anika Suresh (M) def. Chloe Doan/Lily Hamric (UM), 6-0, 6-2
Vivona Xu/Elise Pham (PHX) def. Cindy Li/Emily Riefer (PV), 6-2, 6-0
Final:
Lian/Suresh def. Xu/Pham, 7-5, 6-0
Third-place match:
Li/Riefer def. Doan/Hamric, 2-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2
Fifth-place playback:
Arushi Sudarshan/Sannidhi Satrusalya (PV) def. Shreya Koli/Sanaa Desai (SF), 4-2 ret. (injury)
Lili Freese/Taylor Maguire (PT) def. Sol Martin/Joanna Chung (M), 6-4, 6-1
Fifth-place match:
Freese/Maguire def. Sudarashan/Satrusalya, withdrawal (pc)
