Ross boys tennis' Ignacio Pena Lopez advances to championship match at state tournament
Ignacio Pena Lopez of the Ross School in action during the state semifinals of the boys tennis championships on Saturday, June 6, 2026, at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing.
Credit: Anna Sergeeva
Ignacio Pena Lopez was flying under the radar.
The Ross School junior fell short in the Suffolk boys tennis individual championships on May 19, dropping him to the sixth seed entering the state tournament. But Pena Lopez is not to be underestimated. Not with a state championship on the line.
Pena Lopez upset No. 3 William Bohner of Friends Academy, 6-4, 6-2, in the quarterfinals and No. 2 Saje Vijay Menon of Wheatley, 6-3, 6-3, in the semifinals of the state individual championships at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Saturday.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Pena Lopez said. “They were long, tough matches against really great players and the scores don’t really show how hard they were. But, I’m feeling good, I’m playing good and I’m more than ready for tomorrow.”
Pena Lopez will face No. 1 Jack Reis of Scarsdale in the championship match 8 a.m. Sunday. A top-seeded matchup may be daunting to some but, with two top- three upsets already under his belt, Pena Lopez said the numbers haven’t fazed him.
“Sometimes I want to think about it,” Pena Lopez said. “Like, what if he’s better than me? And it makes you nervous but, once I get onto the court, I just try to focus on my game and on every point.”
Menon defeated Floyd’s Vidal Macchia, 6-2, 6-0, in the quarterfinals and will face Liverpool’s Justin Barrett in the third-place match.
In doubles, second-seeded CJ Bravo and Ben Wiese of Garden City had a swift road to the championship, taking down Shoreham-Wading River brothers Ray and Kai Hidaka, 6-2, 6-2, in the quarterfinals and third-seeded Nikhil Shah and Aayan Mehta of Syosset, 6-3, 6-0, in the semifinals.
Bravo and Wiese will face No. 1 Pratik Nayak and Christopher Cho of Clarkstown South for the doubles state championship, also at 8 a.m.
“We lost in the quarterfinals last year, so we already know we improved from there,” Wiese said. “We tried to come in more confident, we had more strategies and we’ve been making better choices all tournament.”
The team has a unique blend of assets that make them dangerous. Bravo has quick feet and is capable of attacking the ball whether he’s at the net or baseline, while Wiese, standing at 6-4, has a powerful serve and impressive wingspan.
“I think we just have to keep the confidence going, trust the plan and trust each other,” Bravo said. “We’ll keep being ourselves, focusing and staying solid.”
The pair defeated Shah and Mehta by nearly the same score — 6-2, 6-0 — to take the Nassau individual crown on May 16. But the journey isn’t over for the Syosset pair, who will face Scarsdale’s No. 4 Lucas Yao and Dylan Pai in the third-place match. Though it isn’t the outcome they were hoping for, Shah said the experience itself makes it worth it.
“This is probably one of the best, if not the best, tennis centers in the world,” Shah said. “It’s such an honor to play here and wear Syosset’s jersey. We have two [doubles] teams here which is just a testament to our coaching and this program. We’re both graduating, so getting a high position in states would be really nice.”
Shah and Mehta defeated their teammates, brothers Jacob and Grayson Prince, 6-3, 6-1, in the quarterfinals.
Tess Ferguson is a reporter on Newsday's high school sports staff. She joined the team after graduating with a journalism degree from Ithaca College in 2025.
