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Nearly two years ago, a friendship was forged on the tennis courts that would come to define the high school years of Ethan Black and Prem Kamat. It would also come to define the tennis programs at LaGrange High and LaGrange Academy, with Black leading the Grangers to their first-ever state championship and Kamat winning an individual state championship while helping guide the Warriors to their second state championship in tennis and their first in over 20 years.

The two met as children, and eventually both found their way into Coach Stephen Vincent’s clinic. Forced together by happenstance and proximity, the two built a rapport that was at first centered around tennis, but quickly grew into something more.

“At first it was like let’s just hit together, then we would start talking about what professional tennis matches were on when we were changing over,” Kamat said. “Then, it was like ‘hey, what’s happening in school?’ And talking about what we had in common. Now, we text each other about random things.”

A friendship quickly blossomed despite Kamat being two grades ahead of Black. 

“Last summer, we were out here pretty much every day, and now, I started driving, so we have been out here even more now,” Black said. 

While the two are hitting partners during their private lessons, they also go and play with each other on their own. Dozens of matches turned into hundreds turned into thousands of matches against each other.

“Playing a person as often as we have, you really start to learn how the other person ticks and what their strengths and weaknesses are,” Kamat said. “I remember one day when we were practicing, and I really wanted to beat Ethan that day. My serve was not working well, so I switched to a kick serve, and then I did it again and again, and Ethan kept sailing the return. I just remember when I was doing it for the fourth or fifth time, and Ethan got a little frustrated and was like, ‘Don’t you have any other serves?’ I laughed and did another kick serve, and he sailed it long on the return.”

Knowing how each other operates on the court led to some tense yet funny moments in hindsight.

“Ethan’s demeanor on court is that he’s gonna be straight faced, and I remember I tried to say, ‘hey, Ethan, just keep the ball in play’ or something like that this guy was not having it, he snapped at me,” Kamat said as the two shared a laugh. 

Iron sharpened iron, and the Grangers and Warriors were the prime beneficiaries of this friendship. Both players were the No. 1 singles player on a team that won a state championship.

“It was such a surreal feeling to see him win it, and then like a month later we won it,” Black said. “It’s only hard to put into words what it was like.”

“I keep a pretty nonchalant Instagram account, but I had to post Ethan on my stories when he won because of how proud I was of him,” Kamat added, snickering. 

Both individuals are singles players, never adapting to the doubles format. Although the two have tried playing on the same doubles team in occasional friendly matches.

“We are one of the worst doubles pairings that you will ever see,” Black said. “If you put us both on the same side of the court, it is going to be terrible to watch.”

The two are now holding on to their friendship on the courts as long as they can. Black will be heading into his junior year at LaGrange High School in the fall, but Kamat is freshly graduated and heading to Emory University in Atlanta later this year. 

“He said he’s still going to come down and we’ll hit on occasion,” Black said, with a twinkle in his eye. “I’m going to miss hitting with him when he goes off to college, but luckily, there is still some good competition around.”