While the debate around the hardest sport is a perpetual brawl, one would have to be ignorant to forget tennis.

The sport calls for athletes to use both extreme power and precise millisecond decisions while enduring the isolated, multi-hour-long mental and physical fatigue each match creates.

Every year, the Minnesota High School Boys Tennis State Tournament is held in the first week of June. The tournament brings together the top schools from each section, putting forth their best singles and doubles teams to the final stage. Two captains, Tarun Gopalakrishnan ’26 and Graham Everett ’26, have demonstrated the necessary skills to compete at such a high level, placing third two years ago.  Now they hope to compete, once again, in their last years.

Everett explained: “The mental difficulty of tennis is finding yourself in a slump, alone, and needing to pull yourself out if you wish to compete at all.” While tennis is built on quick shots leading to individual points, the makeup of the game requires a long-term focus. Interestingly enough, Everett mentioned he “likes to get loud when [he is] winning, allowing [him] to build momentum.” Contrastingly, Gopalakrishnan stays composed and calm, keeping his thoughts and emotions to himself.

Tennis creates an environment of pressure to be present for every point, never slowing down or allowing fatigue to let a ball slip by. As Sections draws closer, the pressure to win builds, but for Gopalakrishnan and Everett, the wish to improve remains.