Lake Norman Publications

Myers checks goals off his list


Herald Weekly 2017 Boys Tennis Player of the Year



Hopewell’s Fernando Myers went undefeated in the regular season and finished second in the region while posting a 16-2 record this year.Andrew Stark

Hopewell’s Fernando Myers went undefeated in the regular season and finished second in the region while posting a 16-2 record this year.Andrew Stark

HUNTERSVILLE – When he was 12 years old, Fernando Myers had a decision to make.

He had grown up starring on the soccer field and on the tennis court, but his dad told him it was time to make a choice and pick just one sport to focus on.

He’d been playing soccer most of his life and had been playing tennis since he was 8, but he chose to stick to the court and see how good he could get in tennis.

“I think I made the right decision because I had a lot of success and got to meet a lot of people I never would have gotten to meet otherwise,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of fun playing, and this year was especially fun.”

But, Myers said, his senior season didn’t start out well.

“Tennis this year was different because we didn’t even think we’d have enough players to have a team,” he said. “It’s wasn’t good, but I think it turned out to be a really good year. We came in fourth place in the conference, but that was really good considering only two of my teammates had ever picked up a racket before. We started with eight players, but two of them got injured, so we just had six. If one of them was sick or had a doctor’s appointment or something we’d have to forfeit, so I think fourth is pretty good.”

The fact that the Titans were able to finish fourth in the MECKA 4A says a lot about what Myers meant at the top of the lineup.

He said the leadership role this year was something he took a lot of pride in, especially considering he was working with several players who had never played competitive tennis before this season.

“I told those guys all of the time that they should come out, try their hardest and have fun,” he said. “It didn’t matter if they won or lost, but I wanted them to give it their best, and that’s all I could ask of them.”

But Myers asked a lot of himself.

Last year he had finished third in the region and made the state tournament but didn’t win a match there.

This year he wanted to do better.

“I didn’t put a lot of stress on myself, but I knew I wanted to get further than I had before,” he said. “I wanted to play better all year and get further in the regional and state matches.”

Myers did just that.

He swept through the conference season without losing a singles match again this year – he also went unbeaten as a freshman and junior after taking his sophomore year off from high school tennis to work on his game.

Myers entered the postseason matches looking to improve on what he had done in the past and accomplished that, too.

He reached the finals of the Class 4A Western Regional before falling to Myers Park’s Mark Dillon. In the state tournament, Myers defeated Southern Pines Pinecrest’s Aiden Temple 6-1, 6-2, in the opening round before falling to the eventual state champion, Cary Green Hope’s Ben Wayand, 7-5, 6-0.

“I came in third in the region last year, but I was able to make the regional finals this year,” he said. “I lost to Mark Dillon, who is a good player and a good friend of mine. That was fine with me because I knew I’d already qualified for states either way.

“I won my first round of states, which was my goal because I’d never won a match there in the past. I ended up playing Ben Wayand in the second round, and he went on to win the whole thing. I played really well, so losing to the state champion didn’t really bother me. I played well and was really happy with how I played.”

Myers closed out his final year at Hopewell with a 16-2 record in singles play that saw him win 162 of the 210 games he played this season. For that, Myers is again the Herald Weekly Boys Tennis Player of the Year after winning it last season.

Myers has climbed up the recruiting boards and is currently ranked as a two-star recruit, rated as the No. 14 player in his class in North Carolina and is within the top 500 players in his class in the nation, according to Tennisrecruiting.net.

Myers said he has options to play on the next level but doesn’t know if he’s going to take them yet.

“I still haven’t decided if I want to play. If I decide not to play next year I’m going to go to community college and see if I miss it,” he said. “I’ll be playing ITAs (tournaments against college-aged players) and other tournaments this summer. If I decide not to play this coming year, I will keep playing on my own to stay in shape, but I won’t play as much as I do now.”

Either way, Myers said he’s happy that he chose the right sport for him to focus on, and now he can look back on his career with pride.

“I knew it was all mental for me,” he said. “I needed to stay in the game and not hit dumb shots or anything and be patient, and I was able to do that all year.  I came into this year with a goal to do better than I had and I was able to do that, so I’m happy with the way it went.”

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