South Oldham sophomore Carson Kroll fought off three set points in the first set and rallied to defeat Caldwell County sophomore Ryan Hammett 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in the first round of the 2022 KHSAA Tennis State Championships presented by UK HealthCare.
Hammett led 5-3 in the opening set Tuesday morning at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington. But he couldn’t put away Kroll, who won the next three games to go up 6-5.
Hammett, the 2nd Region champion, served for the set, up 5-4. The game went to deuce four times before Kroll picked up the win.
Hammett did come back to force a tiebreaker at 6-6, but Kroll took that 7-2 to claim the first set.
In the second set, Hammett grabbed leads of 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3. But again, Kroll rallied, taking the last three games to finish off the match.
Kroll advanced to the state tourney by being a semifinalist in the 8th Region tournament.
