Dearborn High, Dearborn Divine Child come out on top, Fordson, Edsel Ford trail

DEARBORN — In a tennis event that used to include only Dearborn schools, it was fitting that two of them were able to tie for first place. Dearborn High and Dearborn Divine Child tied for the championship in this past Saturday’s Press & Guide All-Area Tennis Tournament, with Dearborn’s Fordson coming in fourth place and Dearborn’s Edsel Ford coming in seventh.

The tournament featured eight area schools and is the first big event on the tennis calendar. There were four levels of play in both singles and doubles and one point was awarded for the winner of each match. Dearborn and Dearborn Divine Child each finished with 17 points on the afternoon, Dearborn Fordson had 14 while Dearborn Edsel Ford had nine. This year, the tournament was greeted with sunshine and nice temperatures, allowing student athletes to put their best games on display for all to see.

“It’s a beautiful day out here and the first tournament of the year so it’s exciting,” said Zainab Sabbagh, a member of the Dearborn #1 doubles team, after her second round match.

“It’s fun to see everybody out here that we’re going to be playing for the rest of the season,” said her partner, Erica Schneider.

The teammates went on to win the #1 doubles tournament for the Pioneers. The duo’s toughest match on the day was in the second round against Wyandotte when they went down 6-5 before coming back to win the tiebreaker set. Sabbagh and Schneider went on to defeat Divine Child’s team of Tasha and Tara Berry to win it all by scores of 6-3 and 6-1.

Dearborn coach Dan McCathney talked about the strengths of each player.

“Zainab is the most consistent player on the team, she gets a ton of balls back and gives Erica a chance to put the ball away,” he said. “She’s a good competitor who doesn’t like to make mistakes and a very steady, even-tempered player.

“Erica has a very good serve and a nice forehand that’s become more consistent this year.”

Both players are captains for the Pioneers, who elected three for the season total.

Meanwhile, the host Fordson Tractors were able to dominate the other three levels of doubles competition, winning the most overall championships of any team in the event with three.

The winners for #2 doubles were Farah Serhal and Asmaa Karaali, the #3 doubles bracket was won by Dana Achmar and Mariam Nassar, and the #4 doubles bracket was won by Hala Hachem and Lara Achmar.

Fordson didn’t fare well in singles, but their head coach John Forster was pleased with his players and the team’s ability to make doubles their strong suit.

“Traditionally we’ve always put our strength in doubles. Our kids are athletic enough to play in doubles but just struggle in singles.

“All these kids are really great kids, successful academically and a lot of them play other sports.”

Dana Achmar of the #3 doubles champions talked about the close last match her team had with Wyandotte and what it meant to bring home a title for her school.

“The last match we basically tried our best and tried to get every ball over the net even if they lobbed the ball over our heads. We never gave up on any ball,” she said.

 “It was a pretty close match, we won by one shot and then we had a tiebreaker and we won by four points. We were really under pressure but we couldn’t give up, we really wanted to win.”

Achmar attributed her and teammate Mariam Nassar’s success to their chemistry on the court.

“We’re good team players, we both call for the ball and don’t give up on any ball and try to do our best,” she said.

Praise for the tournament was passed on by coaches and players alike from many of the area schools in attendance, and Dearborn coach McCathney thanked Forster for doing a “great job running the tournament” as well as the Fordson players for “exhibiting great sportsmanship and class.”