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Boys Tennis Rebuilds Around Promising Talent

 

A Fox Chapel boys tennis player hits a backhand shot during a match.

There is a youthful aura around this season’s Fox Chapel Area boys tennis team.

 The roster sports only one senior, but there appears to be a lot of quality in the student-athletes that will be swinging the rackets for coach Alex Slezak’s team this season.

 “We have a young team that’s inexperienced, but we’re excited to have them, and we’re excited to go through the experience with them,” coach Slezak said. “They have the skills. They just need to garner the experience and learn how to deal with the pressure of being in those situations. They will, and as the season goes on, they’ll get better at it.”

That youth brings back only one starter from the 2025 team that went 11-2, captured a section championship with a 6-0 record, and advanced to the WPIAL quarterfinals. But that returning player is an accomplished player. Sophomore Frank Siegel was a section doubles champion in 2025 with graduate Mason Friday, a duo that also finished third in the WPIAL. Frank will be the No. 1 singles player this season.

“He’s an athlete,” coach Slezak said of Frank. “He’s a competitor. He helps to set that tone for everybody else." 

Junior Grant Fenton is ticketed for the second singles spot, and junior Brady Haberman will handle third singles.

First doubles will be handled by Rocco Didomenico, the lone senior on the roster, and his cousin Harrison Soose, a sophomore. 

 The second doubles pair is sophomores Andrew Larsen and Chase Walters. 

The Foxes are once again in WPIAL Class 3A Section 3 with Allderdice, Baldwin, Central Catholic, Shaler Area, Thomas Jefferson, Woodland Hills, and the always tough Shady Side Academy. 

Coach Slezak, in his 12th season, said the key to the Foxes' success this year is pretty basic.

 "We just have to keep working hard, gain some competitive experience,” he said. “You can’t fake experience. You just have to get it and learn from it. They have all of the tennis skills. They just need the competitive experience. When we lose, we still get better because we learn from the losses. When we win, we gain confidence.”