WOOSTER, Ohio - The College of Wooster and Aspen Racquet Club hosted the 48th annual OHSAA Girls Tennis State Tournament on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 19-20, 2023. Thursday’s opening round matches were played at Wooster’s outdoor tennis complex, but rain moved Friday’s semifinals and finals to the indoor courts at Aspen.
Division I Singles
North Canton Hoover senior Tess Bucher won her school’s first tennis state championship, defeating Westlake’s Amara Brahmbhatt 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the championship match. Bucher’s state title capped a career in which she finished runner-up at the 2022 state tournament and placed fourth as both a freshman and a sophomore.
Brahmbhatt was Westlake’s first state finalist since Lauren Golick won the Division I singles title in 2012.
Division I Doubles
Mason’s Emma Wagner and Pratyusha Chauduri won the school’s first doubles trophy, defeating New Albany’s Richie Francois and Paige Cornelius, 6-0, 6-1, in the state championship match. Wagner, a freshman, and Chauduri, a sophomore, were the first Mason tandem to play for a doubles state title and won each of their four matches at the state tournament in straight sets.
Francois and Cornelius, making their third appearance at the state tournament, finished runner-up for the second year in a row.
Division II Singles
Bexley sophomore Amiya Bowles claimed her second straight state title in Division II singles, earning a 6-1, 6-2 decision over Cincinnati Indian Hills’ Martha Thompson in a rematch of the 2022 state championship match. Bowles did not drop a game in her first two matches of the tournament, then defeated Eaton’s Mallory Hitchcock, 6-1, 6-3, in the semifinals.
Bowles is the 14th two-time state champion in state history, and her title is the seventh singles state title in Bexley history, tying the school with Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown for the most singles state titles.
Division II Doubles
In a match that stretched nearly three hours, Gahanna Columbus Academy’s Arya Chabria and Yasemin Bilgin out-lasted Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown’s Summer Mu and Kate Mills, 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-5, in the Division II doubles state championship match.
Chabria and Bilgin won their school’s third doubles state championship and first since 2012. Mu and Mills were the 10th doubles team from Hathaway Brown to reach the state finals; they were the sixth to finish runner-up.