In a homecoming of sorts, Matt Barnett was the pride of the Chattanooga area in the 2017 Pride of Tennessee State Junior Qualifying Championships tennis tournament.
Other local 16- and 18-under players did well also and will move on to sectional competition this weekend in Little Rock, Ark., and Mobile, Ala., but the Hixson resident was the one who won a Tennessee championship. And he did it in the biggest division of the tournament and the last one decided.
The four boys' and girls' divisions included 189 participants, and 66 of them were in Boys' 16.
One day after he and Ryan Toomey finished second as an unseeded pair in 16s doubles, Barnett upheld his No. 1 singles seed with a 6-4, 6-2 championship victory over fourth seed Benjamin Sidwell from Medina on Monday. The match took about five hours at Chattanooga's Champions Club, but nearly four hours of that was a rain delay with the second set tied at 2.
With local indoor courts unavailable until late afternoon because of camp schedules, tournament director Andrew Rogers and his crew worked around Monday's rain to finish the Boys' 16s consolation and finals matches at Champions. The top 16 finishers in each age group qualified for sectionals, and that included everyone playing Monday, so some chose to head for home in other parts of the state before their exact placements could be finalized when play resumed in the afternoon.
It was important to Barnett to get his match in.
"I didn't want to be a co-champion after playing five matches and going to the finals," he said. "My goal was to be that one person."
The win over Sidwell was his sixth in the tournament - not counting daily doubles play before Monday - and only his semifinal victory over No. 3 seed Harrison Williams of Knoxville on Sunday went three sets. Barnett won 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. Similarly, when Haddy Salem of Knoxville took him to a tiebreaker in the first set in their quarterfinal, Barnett pulled that out and then won 6-1.
"Saturday he beat two of the top kids from Memphis, and then Sunday he beat two of the top kids from Knoxville," said Dan Barnett, Matt's father.
The 16-year-old Barnett was a 9 seed in last year's state qualifying, but after four years of learning under Eric Voges at McCallie, he spent this past school year attending Hilton Head (S.C.) Preparatory Academy and training at the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy in Sea Pines Resort. Matt and his mother, Andria, stayed at the family's condo nearby, while Dan stayed in Hixson - he works for BlueCross Blue Shield - and visited when he could.
The "Smith" in Smith Stearns is Grand Slam winner Stan Smith, and 2017 Tennessee Girls' 16 singles and doubles champion Winslow Huth of Brentwood also trains there.
Barnett sees improvement in his game "physically, definitely" from Smith Stearns' fitness emphasis, and also in consistency through increased repetition in his strokes and in more and tougher competition during his time in South Carolina.
"My coach helped a lot - Worth Richardson," Barnett said. "We made some changes in my game, and it took a good six months to really show. It took a while to start working."
Going from finalist to champion in the state qualifying took a good bit of time also. Barnett was at Manker Patten Tennis Club at 6:30 a.m. Monday, warming up with one of the pros there, Robert Watson, and was at Champions by 8, the scheduled match start time. He and Sidwell finally got on the court a little before 10, play was suspended at 10:55 and they stayed in touch with tournament officials through hoped-for 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. resumption times before cranking up again.
With more rain threatening, Barnett quickly won four games and the match.
"He was coached and made some adjustments," he said of Sidwell. "I had to pick up on it fast."
The tournament was held in conjunction with the Sean Karl Foundation and raised awareness and funds for the battle against Ewing Sarcoma, the form of cancer that took the life of the young standout from Nashville a couple of years ago. He had signed with the University of Tennessee, and new Volunteers head coach Chris Woodruff and his team helped in a clinic Thursday afternoon.
A silent auction held through Saturday included a shirt autographed by Roger Federer, a racket signed by John Isner and a hockey stick signed by the Nashville Predators. Auburn coach, former Vanderbilt star and 12-year professional Bobby Reynolds took part in an exhibition Saturday night.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.