In what is one of the biggest events of the year at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College, the GHSA team tennis championships Wednesday will have a bit of local flavor when both the girls and boys finals get underway.
It all starts at 9 a.m. with the girls finals for eight classifications. Local attention should be on courts 4-8 with the Class A Division I championship best-of-5 featuring No. 6 Model High and No. 1 Jeff Davis of Hazelhurst.
At 12:30 p.m., on courts 41-45, it’s the Private A-AAA boys championship. Darlington School’s Tigers and Greater Atlanta Christian made sure it was a No. 1 against No. 2 battle, Darlington doing its part Friday eliminating No. 3 Athens Academy in Rome 3-0.
Under first-year head coach Lacey Craig, a former Berry College player, the Tigers got three straight set victories on Athens Academy while one match split the first two sets and the fifth and final encounter was deep into a competitive second set.
In the end, it was Randy Kim winning No. 3 singles 6-1, 6-2; Felipe Selle and Lukas Hempel winning No. 1 doubles 6-2, 6-0 and Davis Carney and Grady Ferguson winning No. 2 doubles 6-4, 6-3.
No. 2 singles Murray Ellington won his first set 6-2 but dropped the second 4-6. He had a 2-1 third-set lead when play was halted.
John Courtnay, No. 1 singles, was tied in his second set 4-4 after taking the first one 6-3. Matches in progress stop when one side has three individual match wins.
This article was originally published by Matthew Brown in the Rome News-Tribune on May 12, 2026.
Matthew Brown, Rome News-Tribune
Matthew Brown, Rome News-Tribune
