State champ Edward Liao lived up to his own great expectations
Edward Liao from Commack High pose withe his first place medal in the singles finals of the 2023 NYSPHSAA Boys Tennis State Championship at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing New York, Sunday, June 4, 2023. Liao won in three sets. 6-2 4-6 6-2. Credit: Louis Lanzano
Sibling rivalry is a powerful force. In Edward Liao’s case, a very powerful one.
The Commack junior’s drive to match his older sister’s athletic achievements helped shape Liao into the state’s best high school boys tennis player.
Liao, with a big serve and lethal righty forehand, capped a superb season by first helping the Cougars to the Suffolk County large school team title and then capturing the state singles crown at the NYSPHSAA Individual Championships at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center in Queens. He is the first Commack player to win the state title.
Liao cruised through three straight sets wins while dropping just 10 games to reach the state semifinals. There, he showed how much he had advanced since his 2022 quarterfinal exit. He came back to outlast the savvy Drew Fishback of Geneva in the semifinals, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 and then showed grit and an ability to overcome adversity to beat Braeden Gelletich of Goshen, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
To pull out wins like those requires a deep competitive drive, that Liao’s parents say became apparent at a very young age. His father, Xiangmin, said that when he would take Edward’s older sister, Kimberly, to practice, Edward would want to get on the court.
“He always wanted to say ‘I am the better one,” said Xia Zhou, his mother. “He always wanted to say ‘I am better than her. . . at everything.’”
And Kimberly Liao was not easy to keep up with. She won a Suffolk County girls singles title in 2015 as an eighth-grader for Commack and went on to play tennis at MIT, where she just finished her junior year.
“She was a great role model,” said Edward Liao, who is an early commit for Dartmouth. “She did it all, from grades to athletics. I know how people saw her and I wanted to be better. Whatever it was I had to have it – I needed to be the best.”
Game. Set. Matched ya, sis!
It wasn’t just a sibling rivalry that transformed Liao’s game. The pandemic, which wiped out the 2020 high school season, also played a role. Liao had a growth spurt, and not just physically.
In 2019 he was a 5-9 seventh-grader who made the Commack varsity as a doubles player, teaming with close friend James Yu and reaching the Round of 16 in the state tournament. By the time he returned for the 2021 season, he stood 6-2 and was the best singles player in Suffolk County. He won the Suffolk individual singles championship to cap an undefeated season; state championships were not held that year.
“He came back looking like a man and everything took off for him – it was insane,” Commack coach Jimmy Delevante said of Liao, now 6-4. “With the pandemic, he had more time than usual to dedicate to his tennis. He also took more of an interest in his fitness. He came back a different human being.”
Xiangmin Liao committed to helping his son develop during that time. Locked out of many tennis facilities nearby, they went to public courts in Stony Brook and hit for hours. They worked tirelessly on the toss that opens his big serve. And Xiangmin shot video whereever Edward played and they would break it down.
“Having your dad as a coach is good and bad, but the positives far outweight the negatives,” Liao said. “He will work with me whenever I want. He knows my game best.”
“She made him run miles,” Xiangmin Liao said of his wife, “and now he can be ‘the last man standing.’ ”
Improved fitness and technique started at home and has continued with his work with the John McEnroe Tennis Academy. There, coaches also have taught him to defend and use ‘neutral’ shots to extend rallies.
“That part of my game sometimes messes with [opponents’] heads,” Liao said. “My mental game and decision making really helped me this year.”
“His game today is really complete and it sends a message across the net,” Delevante said. “His game says ‘I’m not in a rush and I don’t need the rally to end. With the new shots he’s added and the fitness, he can keep you out there and torture you and run you. They feel pressure to end those long rallies and that’s when they make mistakes. They feel the pressure.”
Asked whether he plans to defend his title in 2024, Liao didn’t give a definite answer. He will play the high school season but is considering rejoining Yu to seek a state doubles title.
“Winning this year was cool,” he said. “Winning a doubles championship with James would be cool, too. Can you imagine having won both?”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
