US Open honors budding NY tennis stars killed by alleged drunk driver

Two budding teen tennis stars killed by an alleged drunk driver on Long Island four months ago were honored during the US Open’s first coin toss Monday – with their heartbroken parents lamenting that “our boys should be with us.”

The parents of Drew Hassenbein and Ethan Falkowitz – both 14-year-old eighth graders from the island’s North Shore – were brought onto the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens for the coin flip just as the tournament’s first round kicked off.

“This was Drew’s home — this is where he wanted to be,” Mitchell Hassenbein said, fighting back tears. “It’s tough to be here. But I know that he would want me to be here. And that’s why I’m here. It’s very nice that the US Open is honoring them.”

The two Roslyn Middle Schoolers died May 3 when Amandeep Singh, 34, allegedly slammed his Dodge Ram into the Alfa Romeo in which they rode while careening south at nearly 100 mph in the northbound lanes of North Broadway in Jericho, prosecutors have said.

Cops later found him hiding behind a dumpster at a nearby shopping center, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.

“It was a catastrophic crash that miraculously the defendant was able to survive relatively unscathed,” Donnelly said. “But he didn’t stay at the scene to face the accountability for the destruction he had just caused. He fled the scene on foot.”

Four hours after the accident, Singh still had cocaine and nearly twice the legal limit of alcohol in his bloodstream, Donnelly alleged.

Singh was allegedly so drunk that he thought he was in New Jersey when he was arrested in Nassau County, prosecutors said.

“What are you guys doing here?” Singh, who was allegedly mired in a drunken stupor, asked the cops. “Aren’t we in New Jersey?”

Singh is being held in jail without bail on charges of manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, vehicular homicide, assault, driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident, among other counts.

Gary Falkowitz, Ethan’s dad, said the US Open’s gesture did little to ease the immense pain of losing a child.

“Every day is the same nightmare,” said Falkowitz, who attended the match with his wife, son and daughter.

“I wake up, I remember,” he said. “And every day is the same nightmare. Our boys should be with us.”