Each week, NJ Advance Media will highlight the best individual boys tennis players in the state by selecting Players of the Week from each conference.
Players are chosen based on tournaments completed and matches reported to njschoolsports.com from April 16-22.
Any matches played on April 23, today, will be included in next week’s honors.
Previous Honors
The decisions are ours to make, but feel free to send any nominations to the email address listed below.
Here are the latest Boys Tennis Players of the Week.
Burlington County Scholastic Conference
Gabe Harvey, Sr./Zaydan Lalani, Jr., Moorestown Friends
The standout doubles tandem for the Foxes won all three matches this past week. Harvey and Lalani teamed up at first doubles to down both Cinnaminson and Palmyra, 6-0, 6-0. They also claimed a strong 6-1, 6-3 win over Haddonfield at second doubles. Earlier last week, the duo reached the final round at second doubles at the Burlington County Open as well.
Big North Conference
Shayan Chatiwala, Wayne Hills, Jr.
Chatiwala managed to win every one of his matches through the past week. Outside of his matchup with Dwight-Englewood, where Chatiwala won 7-5, 6-2 over Dylan Dennis, Chatiwala only lost three games in the three wins for Wayne Hills. He defeated Wayne Valley’s Pavle Konatar, 6-2, 6-0, Paramus’ Milan Shukla, 6-0, 6-0, and Glen Rock’s Jacob Grinberg, 6-1, 6-0.
Cape-Atlantic League
Miguel Manalang, Cedar Creek, Fr.
Manalang has quietly been stellar as a freshman for Cedar Creek this spring. The rookie first singles is 12-0 with all 12 wins being incredible 6-0, 6-0 scores, including two in the past week. Manalang has barely broken a sweat thus far this year.
Colonial Conference
Christian Erhardt, Haddon Township, Sr.
Erhardt has been steady at the top of the lineup for unbeaten Haddon Township this season. The senior first singles is 9-0 and hasn’t dropped a set. In the past week, Erhardt defeated Gateway’s Dylan Ceravolo, 6-0, 6-0, St. Augustine’s Cole Polistina, 6-3, 6-0 and Mainland’s Saketh Agava, 6-1, 6-2. Agava was last week’s Colonial Conference POW.
Colonial Valley Conference
Danyal Rizavi, Hopewell Valley, So.
Despite being unseeded, Rizavi played his way into the second singles semifinals at the Colonial Valley Conference Tournament earlier this week. Rizavi upset last week’s CVC POW, Hightstown’s fourth-seeded. Maahir Chadha, in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-4. In regular season action for Hopewell Valley, the sophomore defeated Pennington’s Henry Fan, 7-6(8-4), 7-5 in the Bulldogs close 3-2 win.
Greater Middlesex Conference
Roberto Grande, Perth Amboy, Sr.
Grande remained unbeaten courtesy of a pair of wins in the last week. The senior’s second singles victories over New Brunswick’s Aaron Romero (6-3, 3-6, (10-3) and South Amboy’s Lorent Jean (6-1, 6-1) improved his record to 3-0 on the year. Grande’s record last season was 2-6 at singles. As a sophomore, he was 3-8 at doubles, and as a freshman, he was 4-9 at doubles
Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic League
Christopher Rodriguez, Memorial, So.
Rodriguez won three more times in the last week to up his record to 8-0 on the season at second singles. Rodriguez shut out Bayonne’s Waleed Azhar, 6-0, 6-0 and defeated Secaucus’ Wyatt Chin, 6-2, 6-0 in a pair of Memorial wins. Rodriguez also did his part in Memorial’s tight 3-2 loss to St. Peter’s prep, beating Lucas Mira-McKenzie, 6-3, 6-4. The sophomore has dropped just one set this season.
New Jersey Athletic Conference
Graham Mahoney, Sparta, Jr.
Mahoney captured the second singles title at the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament last week. Mahoney blanked Voorhees’ Christopher Carlucci in the final round, 6-0, 6-0. The junior has won two-straight second singles titles at the tournament to follow up his first doubles crown he achieved in 2023. Mahoney also defeated Roxbury’s Aiden Boccher, 6-0, 6-0, in regular season action a week ago.
North Jersey Interscholastic Conference
Fernando Torres, Pompton Lakes, So.
Torres has been leading a sleeper team in Pompton Lakes to a perfect divisional record. He’s only dropped one set through the first month this season. While Garfield gave Torres some competition, the outcome was still all Pompton Lakes as Torres won at third-singles, 6-3, 6-2. Torres also took the matchup over Lodi, 6-2, 6-0. Torres has also played at first singles and first doubles this season, maintaining an undefeated record.
Olympic Conference
Rishikesh Muddana, Cherokee, Jr.
Muddana is undefeated this season at third singles for Cherokee. The junior this past week defeated Eastern’s Ansh Jaggi, 6-1, 6-1 and Shawnee’s Frank Bonfrisco, 6-0, 6-1. Muddana is 4-0 on the year in the Chiefs’ dual matches as he’s also beaten CBA’s Ari Macaluso and Lenape’s Tevin Pham. Muddana won the third singles flight at last week’s Burlington County Open as well.
Super Essex Conference
Lucas Rao, Glen Ridge, Sr.
Glen Ridge advanced into the quarterfinals of the Essex County Tournament on Tuesday. Glen Ridge defeated Caldwell in the opening round where Rao at first singles beat Hugo Moreland, 6-0, 6-0 for his fourth shutout of the year. In the loss to Millburn later in the afternoon, Rao bested Newark Academy’s Andrew Zielinski, 6-1, 6-4, for one of the best wins in the country this spring. Rao arguably has the talent to be considered the best singles playing high school tennis in the state.
Shore Conference
Jake Sliwinski, Southern, Jr.
Southern has rolled this season (8-1), and Sliwinski has been a big part of that. The junior, who also plays basketball in the winter, is 8-1 at singles this season, including a 7-1 record at the third spot. This past week, Sliwinski defeated Lacey’s Victor Greco and Clearview’s David Carter by an identical 6-1, 6-0 score. He also fought admirably against Christian Brothers’ Ari Macaluso to a 6-3, 6-3 defeat. He was the only one to win multiple games in a given set against the Colts.
Skyland Conference
Ben Gordon, Jr./Alexey Kobin, Fr., Ridge
Ridge got payback against Montgomery on Tuesday as the Red Devils took down the Cougars, 3-2. Montgomery defeated Ridge last week by the same score. First doubles Gordon and Kobin edged Himneesh Sharma and Advaith Molakaseema, 6-2, 6-7(6-8), (10-3) to push Ridge to victory. It was the tandem’s second individual win over Montgomery, and they were able to rebound after a tiebreaker loss to Hillsborough.
Tri-County Conference
Luke Shaw, Jr./Mason Shimp, Jr., Woodstown
Shaw and Shimp remained undefeated from their first doubles position by winning three times in the past week. The duo defeated Timber Creek, 6-2, 6-2, Delsea, 7-6(7-5), 6-3 and Overbrook, 6-4, 7-5 to improve to 8-0 on the season.
Union County Conference
Ben Duan, Westfield, Sr.
Duan was limited last season as he dealt with illness and injuries. Fast forward to 2025 and the senior has started six of Westfield’s seven matches and has won five of them between first and second singles. In the past week, Duan downed Dayton’s Noah Gordeon, 6-2, 6-4 and New Providence’s Akshay Rao, 6-4, 7-6(7-2).
NJ.com’s Anthony Gabbianelli contributed to this article. He will be covering the Big North and NJIC for boys tennis this spring.
Chris Nalwasky may be reached at cnalwasky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow us on social: Facebook | Instagram | X (formerly Twitter).
The N.J. High School Sports newsletter now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now and be among the first to get all the boys and girls sports you care about, straight to your inbox each weekday. To add your name, click here.
As always, please report scores to njschoolsports.com. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.