BENTONVILLE -- When Avery Hargrove and her family first moved to the area, she placed tennis on the back burner so she could concentrate on competitive dance.
All that has changed within the last year. The Bentonville sophomore has returned to tennis and has used a full summer schedule in order to get her game to where she wants it to be.
Mattel Summer Junior Open State Championships at Pinnacle Country Club, Rogers, and Memorial Park, Bentonville
Saturday’s results
Boys 18s singles
Quarterfinals — Braydon Montgomery (1), Van Buren, def. Walter Simpson, Little Rock 6-1, 6-4; Parker Stearns, Little Rock, def. Jef Simpson (4), Little Rock 6-2, 6-3; Spencer Kauffman, Hot Springs, def. John Norton, Texarkana, Texas 6-0, 6-1; Hutch Tidwell, Texarkana, Texas, def. Ryan Hargrove, Rogers 7-5, 6-4.
Boys 16s singles
Quarterfinals — Hudson Brown (1), Marion, def. Quinn Sanders, Texarkana 6-1, 6-0; Zachary Humphries (6), Maumelle, def. Anthony Kopek (4), Fayetteville 6-3, 6-2; Kyle Hudson (3), Pottsville, def. Srikar Chikkala, Bentonville 6-1, 6-1; Jacob Bridges, Little Rock, def. AJ Rogers (5), Little Rock 6-0, 6-2.
Boys 14s singles
Quarterfinals — Jake Sweeney (1), Rogers, def. Andrew Schweitzer, Bentonville 6-1, 6-1; Will Kistler (4), Rogers, def. Vikram Balasekaran, Rogers, 6-0, 6-1; Collin Matthews, Rogers, def. Jack Mason, Fayetteville 6-3, 6-2; Hayden Shoemake (2), Centerton, def. Savion Phillips, Little Rock 6-1, 6-0.
Boys 12s singles
Quarterfinals — Colin Clay, Concord, N.C., def. Cooper Gommel (1), Rogers, 6-3, 6-4; Nikolas Simpson (4), Cave Springs, def. Evan Hart, Fayetteville, 6-2, 6-1; Alexander Brandt (3), Fayetteville, def. Sankalp Pandey, Bentonville, 6-0, 6-3; Jason Kusnowo, Bentonville, def. Alex Beckstead, Bentonville 7-5, 6-2
Boys 10s singles
Second round — Alex Patrick, Fayetteville, def. Samuel Hardin, Bentonville 4-0, 4-1; Henry Brandt, Fayetteville, def. Konner King, Springdale 1-4, 4-2, 1-0.
Girls 16s singles
Quarterfinals — Avery Hargrove (1), Rogers, def. Madison McKinney, Rogers, 6-1, 6-1; Elizabeth Sanders, Texarkana, def. Addyson Lewis (3), Rogers 6-4, 3-6, 1-0; Grace Dunavant (4), Germantown, Tenn., def. EmilyAnne Gean, Bentonvile 6-1, 6-1; Cameryn Cupelli (2), Fayetteville, def. Grace Harris, Little Rock 6-1, 6-2.
Girls 14s singles
Quarterfinals — Mary Houston (1), Fayetteville, def. Sarah Schneringer, Centerton, 6-1, 6-1; Jeanne Gearity, St. Cloud, Fla. def. Vanessa Salinas (3), 6-0, 6-1; Ashlee Shinabery (4), Jonesboro, def. Jessica Hood, Bentonville 6-0, 6-0; Katelyn Tappana, Bentonville, def. Megan Beck (2), Gamaliel 6-4, 6-3.
Girls 12s singles
Quarterfinals — Cydney Rogers (1), Jonesboro, def. Paige Weston, Bentonville 6-0, 6-0; Katherine Files, Fort Smith, def. Brianna Phillips, Little Rock 6-1, 6-0; Alanis Hamilton, Bentonville, def. Barbara Phillips, Little Rock 6-4, 6-2; Eleanor Coleman (2), Bentonville, def. Ashleigh Darnell, Conway, 6-3, 6-0.
Girls 10s singles
Semifinals — Mary Martfield (1), Springdale, def. Ashlyn Pursel, Rogers 4-1, 4-1; Katelyn Long (2), Katelyn Long (2), Cave Springs, def. Elizabeth Files, Fort Smith 4-1, 4-1.
Hargrove took another step in the right direction Saturday at Memorial Park when she took a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Madison McKinney of Rogers in the Mattel Summer Junior Open State Championships, where Hargrove is the top-seeded player in girls 16s singles. She improved her singles mark to 23-10 since February, when she started competing in that age group.
"I just took off of tennis because the tournaments and the competitions were on the same weekends most of the time," Hargrove said. "It just didn't work out, and at the time I liked dance a lot.
"I didn't like competitive dance as much as I thought I would, and I like tennis a lot more. So I went back to tennis."
Hargrove knew her return to tennis wouldn't be easy at first because she knew other girls had trained a lot longer than she had and she wasn't up to their level at the moment. She started it last fall as a member of Bentonville's girls tennis team, where she teamed with Emily Gean and reached the quarterfinals of the Class 7A state tournament.
She followed that with her success as a singles player on the juniors tennis circuit. She won a singles tournament in March and has also finished third, fifth and sixth in other tournaments in the state, as well as earned an invitation to the Southern Closed Championships last month in Little Rock.
"I probably had to regain all of my game," Hargrove said. "I just needed to hit more than I was hitting and play against better players. High school tennis helped some because there were some players that were good and some that were not that good.
"It helped me get a range on how I needed play. I've been active in practice and tournaments, and I've been going for four hours in practice, four days a week. Singles play has been easier for me because I like being on the court by myself."
The work she has put in has also earned her some attention. Hargrove was listed on the Hot 100 list of junior girls tennis players nationwide by tennisrecruiting.net, and she has gone from being unranked to a No. 184 billing over the United States Tennis Association's nine-state Southern Region.
Sports on 07/19/2015