Boys Tennis stock report, April 21: One stunning result and more rising prospects

As the boys tennis season hits its stride, several players and programs are trending upward thanks to strong early results. Here’s a look at whose stock is up through April 20. Check back every Tuesday for the latest risers in boys tennis. • Notes: A former second singles champion at the Bergen County Tournament, Bysiek is unbeaten so far at 4-0 this season at first singles. Bysiek’s last two wins have come against strong opponents in Andrew Chorba from Ridgewood and Devin Seth of Tenafly in straight sets. With the Bergen County Singles Tournament taking place next week, the senior is one to watch. Bysiek reached the quarterfinals last year in the inaugural event. • Notes: It is hard to Caruso’s stock to rise more than it is, but the last year’s state singles tournament runner-up has hardly broken a sweat this spring. Caruso is 11-0 on the year for the 11-1 Colts of Christian Brothers. The lefty has six 6-0, 6-0 shutouts and has allowed two games in a given set just twice. Caruso has beaten a handful of some the state’s better players such as Ocean Township’s Todd Edison, West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Rohan Ramachandran and Livingston’s Dennis Wang among many others. • Notes: Dharma missed the first few weeks of the season, but joined the lineup late last week. After winning challenge matches to get to the top of the lineup, the sophomore made a big splash right away. In his first match of the season, Dharma defeated the reigning two-time Mercer County/Colonial Valley Conference Tournament first singles champion Ananth Vasishta from Hightstown in a match tiebreaker at the Moorestown Classic He then gave up just one game in a rout against Moorestown’s Jayden Tu. This week, Dharma has advanced to the semifinals of the CVC Tournament at first singles. Action is scheduled to resume on Wednesday. • Notes: Lalani and Youssef have performed extremely well this spring, teaming up for the first time. Lalani and Youssef are 4-0 in Moorestown Friends’ dual matches with strong wins over Cherokee and West Windsor-Plainsboro North. As the second seed, the senior duo also won the first doubles flight at the Burlington County open last week after edging Lenape 6-3, 1-6, (10-8). • Notes: Zhou-Zheng and Bordia lost a heartbreaker to Delbarton in the Bryan Bennett Tournament semifinals earlier this month. The duo won the opening set in a tiebreaker and lost the second set 7-5 despite being ahead 5-3. They then went on to drop the super tiebreaker 10-7. Instead of putting their heads down, Zhou-Zheng and Bordia have rebounded quite well. The tandem defeated Ridge’s first doubles pair 6-0, 6-1, and then they captured the flight title at the Somerset County Tournament on Monday. Along the way, they beat tandems from Franklin, Montgomery and Ridge, surrendering just five total games. • Notes: Memorial has risen as a contender in the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic League American Division thanks to recent wins over Bayonne and St. Peter’s Prep. Memorial previously fell to Bayonne 3-2 in the season opener on April 1, but it took the rematch on the road. Memorial , which also owns a recent standout win over Secaucus, has won six consecutive matches. • Key win(s): vs. Wayne Hills 4-1; at No. Highlands 3-2; vs. Blair 4-1; vs. Tenafly 4-1. • Notes: Ridgewood lost four starters including its top two singles players from last year’s undefeated Group 4-winning squad either to graduation or transfer. Nobody knew how the Maroons were going to fare this season with so many question marks, but those concerns have proven unfounded. Ridgewood is 9-0 on the year with already several strong wins over Wayne Hills, Northern Highlands, Blair and Tenafly. Ethan Hong/Briggs Elvgren and Aidan Wilson/Jackson Speed each won in super tiebreakers to lift Ridgewood past Northern Highlands and Blair. Wilson and Speed won in another tiebreaker against Tenafly as did third singles Sebastian Steketee and first singles Andrew Chorba. While the Maroons have benefited from a bit of luck as tiebreakers can go either way, wins are wins and Ridgewood has picked up where it left off in 2025. • Notes: Summit typically has been able to make deep runs in the state tournament and be in contention at the Union County Tournament. But the Hilltoppers had an uncharacteristically down season last year by their standards at 9-6 overall. They also went out in the quarterfinals of the North 2, Group 3 state tournament and weren’t close to competing at the UCT. It is a different story this year as Summit is unbeaten so far. Summit has only been truly tested once, but it passed that test with flying colors with a strong 4-1 win over Westfield. Westfield won the its second consecutive N2G4 title and fourth straight UCT crown last spring. • Notes: Pham began his season with three straight losses against strong foes Jayden Tu, Ethan Berlehner and Kunal Prabhakar, all of whom reached at least the first singles semifinals of the Burlington County Open. Pham earned his first win of the season by making the semifinals of the tournament as well by defeating Moorestown Friends’ Zev Smith 6-4, 6-3. While he lost in the semis to Prabhakar who would go on to win the title, Pham responded by defeating Camden County Championships singles winner, Landon Schuster of Cherry Hill East in a dual match 6-1, 6-3.