LEXINGTON – It took three weeks longer than expected to complete the 93rd News Journal Tennis Tournament, but once action resumed Jake Chilcote – or should we say, Mr. Tiebreaker – simply picked up where he left off.
He beat former Lexington High School teammate and 2024 champ Ethan Remy 6-1, 1-6, 10-8 for the men’s singles title Saturday at Lakewood Racquet Club.
Since Nicky Wong capped his four-year reign in 2022, there have been four different champions over the last four years. There was Justin Csepe in 2023, Remy in 2024 and Dylan Catanese in 2025, paving the way for Chilcote’s run to the championship this summer.
No one can say he didn’t earn it.
Chilcote’s last three wins in the tournament were all decided by 10-point tiebreakers. He went the distance – first to 10 points by two in a decisive mini-set – to beat former champ Alex “Bones” McCann in the quarterfinals and again in the semis against 2024 finalist Cooper Remy, Ethan’s younger brother.
“Tiebreakers are interesting,” said Chilcote, who began his senior year at Otterbein University, where he is a finance and accounting major, last Wednesday. “I have a lot of experience with them, being a fourth year player in college, but it also helps in a tournament, if you win one tiebreaker you feel more confident in the next.
“The second match, I played against T.J. Michalski (from Akron), he was really good. And he really prepared me, but I played good and won 6-3, 6-2. Then I played Bones next and the tiebreaker was anybody’s game. Against Cooper, I got up big in the tiebreaker, which really helps.”
This time around, after Chilcote and Ethan Remy traded lopsided sets, Chilcote jumped out to leads of 3-1 and 5-2 in the tiebreaker before Remy rallied for an 8-7 lead.
Just that quickly, however, Remy lost momentum with back-to-back unforced errors. Serving for the match, Chilcote sliced a forehand to draw Remy in, where he put Chilcote’s next shot into the net.
“Once I got my opportunity at 9-8, I decided I was going to try something decent,” Chilcote said. “I was trying to play the match point by point, so when he went up 8-7, I’m thinking, OK, this point matters. When it was 8-all, then I had to start thinking ahead. If I got that point, I wanted to hit a good serve and a heavy ball, and it ended up working out.
“I wanted to make him do something (by bringing him in). I didn’t want to be reacting. I wanted to be proactive. I wanted to move him up. Some of my best shots are lower balls when I’m at the net. I play a lot of pickleball, so I’ve got a good dip to my game. So whenever anybody comes in, I’m pretty confident I can place a ball at their feet, and that ended up working out for me.”
After Chilcote and Ethan Remy emerged from the pack to reach the finals, play was suspended for three weeks until they could fit their showdown into their schedules. The title match was originally scheduled for Monday, Aug. 3, but Chilcote had his wisdom teeth pulled that day and Remy flew back to Long Island, New York where he spent the summer as an instructor at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy.
“The (lay-off) affected me less than the two-month lapse before the News Journal (tournament),” Chilcote said. “This summer, I didn’t get to play tennis much at all. I had a full-time internship with JPMorgan Chase in Columbus. I got to play a little bit; I was active, which helped, but I definitely came into the tournament feeling rusty. Then I had a week off after having the wisdom teeth pulled, but then I started playing again and those two weeks of solid play really helped going into this match.
“This last Sunday, the freshman at Otterbein moved in, and we have a number of good players, so I was able to hit every day, so I was more prepared for this match than I was for any of the other ones.”
Chilcote, an all-Ohio Athletic Conference honoree, competitively and academically, was able to exact some OAC revenge with this win. He lost to Remy, who will be a junior at Ohio Northern, last year during the regular season and Otterbein fell 4-0 to ONU in the conference tournament finals.
Chilcote and Remy squared off again in the tournament, but ONU clinched the title before they could finish their match. It was Ohio Northern’s fifth straight conference title.
“We grew up playing together and he’s always been super consistent,” Remy said. “He gets to a lot of balls and he hits with a lot of spin, not so much pace. That’s what’s tricky about him.
“When I was up 8-7 (in the tiebreaker), it was a matter of who could put more balls in play. I was struggling, but it was still a good match.”
Remy, playing in the men’s finals for the fourth straight year, hasn’t been home much this summer. He got in from New York late Friday night and was leaving again right after Saturday’s match for college, where he will join his brother, who is there for freshman orientation, and another former Lex teammate, Dylan Catanese.
The two Remys won this year’s News Journal men’s doubles title at the beginning of the month. The older Remy won an OHSAA state doubles title with Catanese in 2024.
“(New York) was a great experience,” said Remy, who worked for the McEnroe Academy at SPORTIME Port Washington, where six-time News Journal men’s singles champ Jay Harris is one of the directors. “The work was a lot of fun, and I met a lot of great people. I was working with kids and adults. I’d do kids camps in the morning and lessons and adults clinics in the afternoon.”
Chilcote also worked as a tennis instructor this summer, at the Medallion Club in Westerville. Giving back to the game, whether it’s lending their expertise as coaches or coming back to this tournament to give it some veteran star power, is what tournament director and Lakewood pro Ron Schaub appreciates about players like Saturday’s two finalists.
“I remember when these guys were in high school, they’d come down to the club at lunchtime to hit, and I know they got in at least 200 sets, so they know each other’s game,” Schaub joked. “This tournament is a chance to celebrate the tennis these guys have always played together. And to see them come back and play here is so cool. It’s like a reunion when the ex-high school players do this.
“They have fond memories of this tournament. It meant a lot to them. It means a lot to the town. I’m guessing there aren’t many tennis tournaments that have been around for 93 years. I learned a lot from college players when I was a kid and now they’re the college guys coming back to represent. It’s really cool.”
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Call him Mr. Tiebreaker | Chilcote outlasts Remy for News Journal tennis crown
Reporting by Jon Spencer, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jon Spencer, Mansfield News Journal | USA TODAY Network
