By DAVID CAMPBELL

Eagle Staff Writer

Kevin Duffy played tennis with the skill of a house painter Tuesday. When he couldn't paint the lines, he used tape.

Duffy repeatedly hit sidelines and the baseline with pinpoint accuracy, but he also used a three-game stretch of skipping shots over the tape for winners and pushed his way to a 6-3, 6-0 victory at the Texas Grand Slam.

It was his high school teammate, A&M Consolidated senior-to-be Nathan Cooner, who was painted into the corner. In a chance pairing, the two Tigers went head-to-head in a third-round qualifier.

"I was surprised to see our names next to each other on the draw sheet," Cooner said. "That usually never happens, especially with 187 kids."

It was nothing new for Duffy.

"The same thing happened to me last year," Duffy said. "I had to play Kevin Wright. I was actually playing doubles with him and got him in singles. I was pretty loose, but either your friend or you is going on. You want it to be you, but it's all right if you lose this."

Cooner had a chance to get the match back on serve and cut the deficit to 5-4 in the first set, but Duffy saved game point with a backhand volley and then won the set on a volley that hit the net and trickled over.

Duffy duplicated the shot in the opening game of the second set, breaking Cooner's server and then tipped the net on a winning shot in the second game, taking a 2-0 edge.

"Hitting the lines meant he hit a good shot," Cooner said. "Hitting the tape, you just kind of say, 'Aw, come on.'"

Cooner admitted his last chance came in the third game, where he was at game point three times in a long game that went to deuce six times.

Cooner will return to Consol and junior tennis, but Duffy is winding down his junior play.

"I think I'm going to play some in July, but this is pretty much it," said Duffy, the only College Station player still in the tournament in boys 18 singles. He is scheduled to play Coppell's Lee Whitehead at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Ninth-seeded Austin Klores of Franklin won handily to stay in the main draw by beating Jonash Loh of North Richland Hills 6-1, 6-4. Klores moved into the round of 32 and will face 17th-seeded Ben Guthrie of Plano at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Texas A&M's Mitchell Tennis Center.

Klores and Dallas' Max Stevens, the fifth-seeded doubles team, beat No. 17 Bryan Baynton and Austin Wiegand 8-2.

Wright won his opening match Tuesday over Igor Ozegovic of Fort Worth, 6-3, 6-0, earning a spot in the third-round qualifier. He then played a strong opening set in his second match of the day but fell 7-6 to Grapevine's Trey Campbell. Campbell closed out the match with a 6-0 second-set win.

Sugar Land's Alexander Lam downed David Hillner 6-3, 6-1.

Nellie Hillner's competition is also over in 16 doubles. She and her partner, Cedar Park's Ariana Saldana, lost to the third-seeded Samantha Adams of New Braunfels and Blair Shankle of Comfort in the quarterfinals.

Two area girls remain in play in the consolation round in 18 girls singles. College Station's Anik Cepeda dropped to that round in the only split-set match involving an area player. Fifth-seeded Brett Ellen Keeler of Austin was able to bookend 6-1 set victories around Cepeda's 6-4 victory in the second set.

Brittni Fausett of Cameron dispatched Cepeda's first-round opponent, Rachel Pierce of Sugar Land 6-1, 6-3. Cepeda had beaten Pierce 6-2, 6-1 on Monday. Fausett, who qualified for the Class 3A state tournament in singles this year, will now face ninth-seeded Kimberly Anicete of Spring in an elimination match at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Mitchell Tennis Center. Cepeda has the same start time and site, taking on Mallori Grambeau of Fairview in a third-round consolation match.

Heather Brien's tournament concluded with a 6-2, 6-4 loss to ninth-seeded Jamila Paul of Bulverde.

Dallas' Jake Davis took a walkover win against College Station's Rushi Dave when Dave did not show up for the morning match.

• David Campbell's e-mail address is david.campbell@theeagle.com.

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