Aragon Dons grab a share of PAL Bay Division tennis title

The win clinched at least a share of the Bay Division title for the Dons, with a match against 1-9 Woodside left to play.

“I knew it would come down to us, M-A and Burlingame,” said Aragon head coach Dave Owdom.

The Panthers had beaten a short-handed Dons’ squad 4-3 in their first meeting, but Aragon had its full starting lineup Thursday. But despite the lopsided-looking loss, the final score could have easily been the other way around.

Of the seven matches, four went to third-set, super tiebreakers after splitting the first two sets — a race to 10, win by two points. Aragon ended up winning three of those four matches.

“If you go back over the years, we were always on the right side of the tiebreakers (when we play Aragon). Today, they were,” said Burlingame head coach Doug Stone. “I like the third-set tiebreaker. You really get to see who takes it. Who’s going to to make one more error, who’s going to hit one more winner.

“The entire match came down to six points.”

Aragon won the first three matches off the court, with Akbar Beg winning 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. Darrin O’Brien stayed undefeated in Bay play winning 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 singles, while the Dons’ No. 3 doubles team of Justin Wong and Adam Beg won the first super tiebreak match, beating Burlingame’s Donovan Ranta and Colin Phonsombat 6-4, 1-6, 10-6.

That’s when things got really interesting. Burlingame finally got on the board as the No. 1 doubles team of Kieran Kilgo and Jake Druskin rallied from a set down to beat Thomas Nie and Jack He. Kilgo and Druskin lost the first set, 6-2, but came back with a 6-4 win in set No. 2 before prevailing 10-8 in the super tiebreak.

But Burlingame’s hopes of mounting a sensational comeback died at No. 4 singles, where Aragon’s Keiya Wada had to dig deep to beat Burlingame’s Caleb Chou. Wada, who had spent his previous three and a half seasons as a part of the Dons’ No. 1 doubles team before moving into the No. 4 singles spot earlier this year, cruised to a 6-0 win in the first set.

But Chou turned things around in the second. Chou was down 4-3, but held serve to tie the set at 4-all and then got a service break for a 5-4 lead. He then served out the set to send it to a super tiebreaker.

But Wada stayed in the match, eventually gaining the clinching team point with a 10-8 decision in the super tiebreaker.

Despite the loss, Stone was proud of the way Chou rallied back.

“Caleb problem-solved and got back in the match,” Stone said.

The Dons picked up their fifth point at No. 2 doubles, where Max Gan and Ziv Rapoport played in the fourth super tiebreaker of the day and the longest of the four. Burlingame’s Nicholas Moshkovoy and Spencer Phonsombat were down 5-4 in the first set before they rallied for a 7-5 win.

Gan and Rapoport didn’t let the Panthers off the hook in the second set, blasting to a 6-0 win at setting up the final super tiebreaker of the afternoon.

And when it was finally over, Gan and Rapoport emerged with a 13-11 decision.

That left just the No. 2 singles match still playing and it was the longest of the day, lasting two hours and 12 minutes with Veraaz Khan coming away with a straight set win to also stay unbeaten in PAL play.

But it wasn’t even. Burlingame’s Noah Chiang had Khan on the ropes in the first set, leading 4-1. But Khan held and got a service break to close to 4-3. Khan eventually tied the set at 6-all and won 7-5 in the tiebreaker.

In the second, Khan jumped out to a 5-2 lead, but Chiang didn’t go down without a fight. He won two games in row to trail 5-4, but Khan served out for the 6-4 win.

While his team was denied a division crown, Stone was just pleased to see such a high level of tennis being played Thursday.

“This was a great day for tennis,” Stone said. “Great match. Awesome tennis all the way around. Everyone was working hard.”