San Ramon Tennis Players Win National Championship

SAN RAMON, CA — The Dublin Pleasanton Tennis Group, a men’s team with players from San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, won the 2022 United States Tennis Association League Adult 40 & Over 3.0 National Championship. This marks the first time any group from Northern California has won the prestigious award.

The team, captained by Narayana Rao Surapaneni and Vamsi Paladugu, lost the same championship in 2021, and took the opportunity to restructure the team. After finding courts at the Pleasanton Tennis Park and a group committed to practicing at least four times a week, the group began winning local championships.

They first won a local USTA league championship, then NorCal sections, and finally advanced to the national championships in Arizona, an accomplishment shared by just one percent of USTA league players.

“Our mantra in 40+ nationals was ‘one ball at a time, we win one play at a time, we win the game and match,’” Surapeaneni told Patch. They moved from sixth position on the first day, and moved their way up to beating undefeated teams. Finally, they beat a team from Seattle that was ranked #2 3-1.

“This is a very huge, proud, very rare and first of its kind 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 misfits a year ago to winning it all this year is a truly inspirational to many in the league.”

Players from the team include:

Shankar Murahari, Narayana Rao Surapaneni, Vamsi Paladugu, Raghupal Bejjanki, Ravi Guntur, Rajeev Gupta, Gautam Joshi, Manoj Lakinana, Dave McConnell, Shiv Sharma, Kishore Sundaresan, Venkata Venkataraman, Sudhish Verma, Mohammad Ziaee, Bheemsen Aitha, Muneesh Batra