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[Sonny Dearth]

I'd never thought of such an honor until I saw Courtland High play in the Region I tournament last week, but it's clear that Mike Mercer deserves this honor -- hands down.

If you've seen Robby Ginepri, you've seen a professional version of Mercer.

Mercer has been part of an amazing winning tradition that the Fredericksburg-area school established. He played on four Battlefield District-winning teams, and his team won the 2006 regional by defeating the Bay Rivers' top three teams on back-to-back days: Tabb, then Jamestown, then Grafton.

This year's Cougars beat Tabb before a vastly improved Jamestown team ended their hopes of returning to the state Group AA semifinals, beating them 5-1 on a sweltering Saturday.

Elliot Mee, the best of three Jamestown starters, beat Mercer 7-5, 6-1 in a match that was a lot closer than the score sounds. They had some marathon games, including the final game of the first set. That game must have had 12-to-15 deuces before Mee finally won it, and it spurred him to a "quick" second-set victory.

Besides their excellent competition, what I'll remember most about Mercer is his amazing resemblance to Atlanta-area pro Ginepri, a guy who grew up trying to follow in Jim Courier's footsteps. It's uncanny.

Courtland's team often wears muscle shirts -- no sleeves -- and Mercer has enough muscles where they don't look ridiculous.

He looks exactly like Ginepri when setting up to serve and when trying to belt forehands with a semi-Western-grip. Like Robby, a former Davis Cupper who lost to Andre Agassi in the 2005 U.S. Open semifinals, Mercer likes to shade far over toward his left alley so he can hit as many forehands as humanly possible.

Mercer's backhand isn't that similar to Ginepri's, but his competitive fire is. How many 7-5, 6-1 matches end with one player being taken to a hospital for cramps? That was the case with Mee.