VALENCIA— Brandon Anandan regrets his blow-up at the WPIALClass AAtennis finals Tuesday.

But the cyber-schooled Knoch junior still defends the reason for it.

Late in the third and deciding set of his boys championship match with Quaker Valley's Alex Sinu, Anandan was disqualified by WPIALtennis committee director Lance Stoner for cursing and slamming his racket to the ground.

It was Anandan's fourth offense for using profanity. The disqualification occurred on match point, with Sinu leading 6-5, 40-30.

"The whole thing started in the second set,"Anandan said. "Before the match began, (Stoner) told us to let him know if anything or anyone was distracting us during the match.

"The radio guy walked across the back of the court right in the middle of my serve. Someone who works in sports, you'd think, would know tennis etiquette. You just don't do that.

"I mentioned that to the guy, he apologized, and I was fine with it,"Anandan said.

Anandan said the radio announcer walked across the court on two more occasions. He said an interview with the winner of another match, on the court next to Anandan, was conducted while the Anandan-Sinu match was still going on.

"It was ridiculous," he said. "That's not the way to run a tournament. The newspaper guys upstairs couldn't see what was going on. They just saw me getting angry."

Anandan was undefeated going into the WPIALfinals. He defeated Sinu 7-5, 6-1 in their section title match last week and had never lost to him before Tuesday.

Anandan's father, Krishnan Anandan, owns the Lakevue Racquet Club, where the WPIALtournament took place.

"My father said a lot of things to me about the way I acted. ... He wasn't happy about it,"Anandan said. "I don't blame him. I've gotten angry during matches before, but I recover. I didn't play well in the first set Tuesday, but got myself together and won the second set.

"Alex and I play each other (at Lakevue) all the time,"Anandan added. "He's a good player and he played well Tuesday, but he didn't beat me. I beat myself.

"I got angry because (Stoner) didn't know the rules. The order of offenses is supposed to go warning, point, game, match."

Instead, Anandan received a warning first, then a game deduction, a point, another point, then the disqualification.

"He tried giving me a two-point penalty. There is no such thing,"Anandan said. "Alex came forward and defended me on that one.

"I was leading the third set 5-4 at one point. If that game's not taken away from me when it was — and it shouldn't have been — I would have already won the match 6-4 and the DQnever would have happened.

"All of this stuff got the best of me and that's my fault. But I kept getting more penalty points for protesting about the original penalties not being handed out correctly,"he added.

WPIALexecutive secretary Tim O'Malley said Anandan never should have complained in the first place.

"It was the WPIALfinals. There are photographers, members of the media, radio personnel there all the time,"He said. "What took place was no different than in any other year.

"His allegations are just excuses because he wasn't playing well. Our setup was the same as it's been in the past and it will stay that way in the future."

Because he was disqualified for poor behavior, Anandan is not eligible to play in the PIAAchampionship "by rule," according to O'Malley.

The top three placers in the WPIALmeet qualify for the PIAAChampionships, scheduled for May 25-26 at the Hershey Racquet Club.

"This isn't a decision, it's a rule application,"O'Malley said. "In all sports, we follow the National Federation of High Schools Association rules, and if a player defaults a match in the district finals — which being disqualified is doing — that player is not eligible for the state tournament."

Knoch athletic director Josh Shoop suspended Anandan from the team indefinitely on Wednesday.

Anandan said he will not play high school tennis next season.

"My father didn't want me to play this year," he said. "I decided to do it for fun, plus I knew it'd be between me and another kid for the state championship.

"I guess I shouldn't have played at all. The guy I feel bad for is my coach (Tom Gammell). This was his chance to go to states and now it's not going to happen."