Pleasant Valley's Karthik Ganesh, serving, and doubles teammate Jatin Kodavatiganti dropped just 13 games en route to the Class 2A doubles title.
Dave Selvig
Jatin Kodavatiganti and Karthik Ganesh capped off a dominate run to gold on Wednesday in Iowa City.
Seeded second in the Class 2A state doubles tournament, the Spartans' standout pairing dropped just 13 games, capped by their 6-1, 6-2 win over Iowa City West's Anthony Medina and Derek Hua in the championship match on Wednesday afternoon.
Kodavatiganti, a senior, and Ganesh, a junior, dropped just three games combined in four straight-set wins at the University of Iowa tennis complex in becoming just the second Pleasant Valley team, in singles or doubles, to claim a state crown.
"It's a really good feeling because we've been working hard for this the whole season," Kodavatiganti said. "Karthik and I have really good chemistry. We support each other out there and I think our games kind of compliment each other on the court."
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Ganesh agreed, saying their bond off the court translated to how they mesh on the court.
"Jatin is one of my really close friends and everybody knows he's a great player," Ganesh said. "We have the ability to basically know where the other is at all times. If I hit a bad shot, I know he's got me, and vice versa."
Neither was surprised they left Iowa City with gold. In fact, they went into play on Tuesday with a little extra fuel to the fire.
"I think we had a chip on our shoulder being the number 2 seed," Ganesh said. "But at the end of the day we went out and proved it on the court."
Mason City's Seth Vandenberg and Trent Kruger and Vivek Kothari and Maarten Beekhuis of Waukee Northwest each got three games once against the PV pair, but nobody got more than that. Kodavatiganti and Ganesh started the tournament with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Dowling Catholic's Marek Dessimoz and Billy Flynn.
"I just knew early in the season these two had a chance to be a really good team," Pleasant Valley head coach Randy Brockhage said. "There were a lot of very competitive games, but they seemed to always be able to persevere. To lose just 13 games against a state-tournament field, it's very impressive."
Kodavatiganti, who plans to attend the University of Iowa in the fall and study pre-med, had initially planned to play singles, but "went with his gut" and teamed with Garnesh instead of wading into a "stacked" singles field.
"Having a partner like Kathik made the decision easier for sure," Kodavatiganti said. "I'm really glad it worked out."
Pleasant Valley's team of Joshua D'Cruz and Suvik Agrawal won two matches in the tournament before falling to Cedar Rapids Washington's Lucas Burkamper and Bjorn White in the seventh-place match on Wednesday.
In winning the title, Kodavatiganti and Garnesh joined the doubles team of Charlie Humes and Sriram Sugumaran in 2016 as the only state-champion Spartans.
"I'm still kind of shock about it," Ganesh said. "Pleasant Valley has had a lot of great doubles teams and a lot of great players over the years. For us to be just the second team to win state, it's pretty remarkable."
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