Waccamaw’s Hendrix wins third straight individual state tennis title

Paul Hendrix and Justin Dunn had to be a little two-faced.

Having both advanced to the finals of the Class AA/A state individual boys tennis tournament, the Waccamaw standouts found themselves going head-to-head Tuesday for the trophy. Good friends off the court, the players were forced to put on their game face inside the lines.

“I’m happy we both could make it, but I’m sad I had to take out one of my teammates to get the title,” said Hendrix, who won 6-0, 6-2 at Cayce Tennis & Fitness Center. “I’m happy he made it there, but once you get on the court – friend or enemy – you have to try to play the same.”

Dunn, a senior, earned his best finish in individuals en route to earning all-state honors again after placing third a year ago. For Hendrix, it was a three-peat.

“It was tough and he’s a great player. He played a little bit better than me today,” Dunn said. “I was happy to see at this level I can play with him. I hung in there to the end.”

Warriors coach Lynn Hunt said the score wasn’t indicative of how close the match was.

“The score doesn’t begin to tell you the length of the rallies and strength of the points they had in this match. Justin should not be slighted because he played a wonderful match,” Hunt said. “You would’ve definitely paid money to see this match on TV.”

It left the coach in the unenviable position of trying to root for a good match rather than for one of his players.

“I sat right in the middle, equally distant from each base line so I couldn’t be partial,” Hunt said. “I cheered kind of silently and grimaced kind of silently on missed and made points from both of them.”

Waccamaw junior Ben Hewes won the consolation bracket to give the Warriors three all-state performers.

“Only a greedy man would ask for something better than that,” Hunt said. “… Overall, the finals could not have worked out much better for us.”

Hendrix believes it’s a sign of things to come for a Warriors program that is a perennial state championship contender in team competition.

“With a bunch of seniors graduating last year, it shows we still have a bunch of great players,” the sophomore said.

Individually, Hendrix has a chance to wind up as a five-time state winner with two years left to go.

“Hopefully I don’t have an injury or family issue where we have to move or anything like that. I’d like to stay here and plan to get two more of these, but I don’t want to look too far because you never know what will happen,” Hendrix said. “But being a five-time champion, that would be my dream in the end.”

Class AAAA/AAA

Jeffrey Dayton had never reached the semifinals of the Class AAAA/AAA state individual tournament.

This year he came just short of winning a title.

Dayton, seeded second, lost 4-6, 2-6 to top-seeded Chambers Easterling of Spartanburg, earning a career-best finish and all-state honors. Unfortunately for Dayton, he ran into a player on top of his game in the finals.

“His serve was on,” St. James coach Lee Cannon said of Easterling. “[Dayton] tried everything to disrupt the kid’s serve today. I would predict that he was 80 to 85 percent accurate [serving]. … That just turned the tide.”

Dayton advanced to the finals when Wando’s Scott Cameron withdrew. Prior to this year, Dayton hadn’t advanced past the quarterfinals.

“We’re very proud of him,” Cannon said.

Easterling is a sophomore and Dayton is a junior, so the two could potentially meet again next year.

“He did everything he could, but when a guy’s hitting good serves and good shots, you’ve just got to deal with it,” Cannon said of Dayton. “[Easterling] was on today.

“… Maybe [next year] they’ll have another chance at each other.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2015 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Waccamaw’s Hendrix wins third straight individual state tennis title."