DENVER – After a dominant first day of the Class 5A boys tennis individual tournament, Broomfield’s Kai Trujillo had to work a bit in the semifinals.

After a three-set win over Denver East junior, Trevor Hajek, he was hoping to return to the dominance he saw on Day 1. Breaking his opponent’s first two serves is a good way to do that.

Trujillo started strong and gave very little momentum back as he rolled to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Grandview’s Justin Son to claim the 5A No. 1 singles championship at Denver City Park.

“After (I broke his serves) I was hyped,” Trujillo said. “I thought maybe I could try to win it in straight (sets). I was hoping to win it in straights because anything can happen in a third set.”

Not on this day.

Son started the match serving to Trujillo, but the Eagles senior broke that serve to start things off. He held his own serve before breaking Son again and before the Wolves sophomore knew what hit him, he was in a 4-0 hole.

He regained his composure to hold serve twice in the first set, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Trujillo claimed the set 6-2.

Trujillo again got a an early break in the second set to put Son back on his heels and the match felt almost academic at that points. Son did finally break Trujillo and took a 3-2 lead in the second set, but Trujillo played a championship level of tennis and rattled off four straight games to claim the title.

(Dan Mohrmann/ColoradoPreps.com)

“My goal was to get the early break in both sets and then hold serve,” Trujillo said. “Luckily I got that in the first and then was able to get a break in the second.”

This has been a dream of Trujillo’s since his freshman season at Broomfield. He made the state tournament as a freshman in 2020, but feel in the first round of the No. 2 singles bracket. In his first attempt to go at No. 1 singles as a sophomore, he was the first alternate from his region. He advanced to state as a junior last season, but again suffered a loss in the first round.

His first-ever win in the championship bracket came this past Thursday when he beat Fort Collins’ Jake Bronson 6-3, 6-3. He followed that up with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ponderosa’s Matthew Hossack to advance to the semifinals where he edged Hajek 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

And then the dominance he saw early in the tournament returned on a crisp Saturday morning for his championship match.

“I was hoping for it,” Trujillo said. “Every match I had butterflies. Today was the same thing but my coaches said just play.”

He took their advice and earned himself a championship medal in doing so.

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2023 Class 5A boys tennis champions:

  • No. 1 singles: Kai Trujillo, Broomfield
  • No. 2 singles: Jace Nakamura, Valor Christian
  • No. 3 singles: Vlad Sukhovetskyy, Regis Jesuit
  • No. 1 doubles: Kris Kostadinov/Matthew Hu, Cherry Creek
  • No. 2 doubles: Harrison Wentworth/Drew Summers, Valor Christian
  • No. 3 doubles: Colin Brown/Tyson Hardy, Cherry Creek
  • No. 4 doubles: Wills Possehl/Adam Eikelberner, Cherry Creek