Free State senior Dravid Joseph works the net against Olathe Northwest in doubles action. The Firebirds swept the Ravens, 9-0, on Monday at Free State.

The fact that he and new doubles partner Andrew Craig have developed a promising on-court rapport hasn’t come as too big a shock to Free State senior tennis player Dravid Joseph.

The swiftness with which that rapport has been fostered, however, has been a bit alarming.

“I’ve been surprised with how fast it happened,” Joseph said following Monday’s duel with visiting Olathe Northwest, during which he and Craig defeated Trevor Egan and Nick Patton, 8-1, in No. 1 doubles to help the Firebirds breeze to an easy 9-0 sweep of the Ravens. “We know each other well, but how fast we came together on the court was kind of surprising.”

“A pleasant surprise, of course.”

Since deciding recently that their best chance of advancing to — and through — the state tournament would likely be as doubles partners, the two have been focused on acclimating themselves to each other’s style of play.

And by just about every account, they’ve done so with relative ease.

In the past few weeks, they’ve earned victories over doubles opponents from a number of strong programs — including Goddard, Salina Central and Shawnee Mission North — while placing third in No. 1 doubles at last week’s Sunflower League Invitational to secure what they hope will be a favorable seeding at this weekend’s regional tournament.

“The thing I like about them the best is that they’re always talking between points, always encouraging each other,” FSHS coach Oather Strawderman said. “They just really pump each other up, and communication is big.”

All of this is not to say that the transition hasn’t come without a few challenges.

“It takes some time to get used to everything,” Craig said. “If you stuck the world’s two best tennis players together against two people that have been playing doubles with each other for a long time, they’re going to lose pretty bad.”

“There’s still times where we get a little confused and a little messed up,” he added, “but they’re getting fewer.”

They’ll have one more opportunity to work out the kinks before Saturday’s regional tournament — a Wednesday afternoon duel against visiting Leavenworth — and both players and coach seem confident that the duo will be ready to roll once the postseason officially kicks off.

“For me and Blaine last year, it kind of took a while (to get comfortable),” said Joseph of former doubles partner Blaine Kaehr, who finished ninth in doubles at the 2009 state tournament. “But for me and Andrew, it’s been pretty instantaneous. We know what we want to accomplish, and we’re able to go out and do it.”