The following is a press release from the Dublin Pleasanton Tennis Team.

Local tennis players of Northern California United States Tennis Association stood as runners-up at the prestigious 2024 USTA Nationals Championship held in San Diego from Oct 18- 20th in adult 18 & OVER 3.0 men’s category and 3.5 men’s team took 5th spot at National Championship held in Orlando.

Dublin Pleasanton Tennis Group consists of players from Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and surrounding areas and is based out of the Pleasanton Tennis and Community Park. This year their Men’s 3.0 team finished as runners up at the prestigious United States Tennis Association Nationals Championship held in San Diego and their Men’s 3.5 team took the 5th place at the National Championship held in Orlando. This is the 7th time since 2022 a team from this group made it to Nationals, including winning the National Championship in 2022, giving the opportunity to more than 70 players to compete on the National stage at the highest level. A feat unheard of even by National standards for any group from one region.

The 3.0 team, captained by Raghu Venna under the mentorship of Narayana Rao Surapaneni who took teams to Nationals 7 times in the past 3 years spent several hundreds hours providing necessary guidance at all stages, built the team with pure raw talent and churned them into a team that competed at the highest level in the Nation, all under a year. A feat only few teams across the Nation can dream of with paid coaches and managers. After finding courts at the Pleasanton Tennis Park, group committed to practicing at least four times a week, the group began winning! Raghu Venna himself is a first time Captain and first year to the USTA league, an exceedingly rare feat for someone new to captain and take a team to National Championship.

They first won a local USTA league championship, then NorCal sections, and finally advanced to the national championships in San Diego, an accomplishment shared by just .5% percent of USTA league players in their lifetime.

“Our mantra in 18+ nationals was ‘play fearless, give everything you got when on courts, have fun and focus on one play at a time,’” Venna told Patch. They finished 3rd in regular rounds at national championship and then played the #2 team to advance to finals. In finals they lost to number #1 seed Southern to finish as runners-up.

This is a remarkable feat where many players in his team are above 40+ years but competed with players half their age and finished as second-best team in the country. USTA bundles 50 states into 17 sections for competing at National stage and at 3.0 level from across the country over 1200 teams took part for the Championship.

“This is a very huge and proud moment for whole of NorCal, Tri-Valley and in particular to the residents & sports lovers in Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon,” he said in a statement. “Our journey to the championship from nobody a year ago to finishing as runners-up, all within a year is a truly inspirational to many in the league.”

The 3.5 team captained by Narayana Rao Surapaneni and co-captained by Ravindra Samson finished 5th missing to make it to semifinals by a point. This was a back-to-back Nationals for Surapaneni’s 3.5 team and coming within a striking distance of winning championship in 2024, a huge progress said Surapaneni in a statement. At 3.5 level from across the country over 1500 teams took part for the Championship.

This press release was produced by the Dublin Pleasanton Tennis Team. The views expressed are the author’s own.