Menlo claims CCS boys’ tennis title

This year, Menlo (26-1) made good on its No. 1 seed, adding its 17th CCS team title to the trophy case with a 6-1 victory Friday over No. 2 Harker (15-4) at Bay Club Courtside in Los Gatos.

“I think when I first started with the boys, they were already pretty hungry and wanted a little bit of redemption from last year,” Sargeant said.

Menlo’s Arki Temsamani and Riley Huang clinched the championship at No. 2 doubles with a spirited 6-1, 4-6, 12-10 victory over Harker’s Yicheng Feng and Vyom Vidyarthi. It was a contentious and nerve-racking finish for Temsamani, who didn’t know the match was hingeing on the win at No. 2s — only that all three doubles matches were deadlocked in super tiebreakers.

“It was close matches all the way around,” Sargeant said. “It was 6-1, but I think some of the matches could have gone either way.”

Menlo was leading in the team scoring 3-0 by virtue of three quick victories in singles play, with No. 2 Yuanye Ma winning 6-0, 6-3 over Arjun Khara; No. 3 Lucas Huang winning 6-0, 6-3 over Jeffrey Zhang; and No. 4 David Lipeles winning 6-1, 6-1 over Ryan Miao.

But the match still hung in the balance as Temsamani and Huang were trailing 9-7 in their super tiebreaker.

“I was looking over at 1 dubs a lot ... and I could see they were in a tight situation,” Temsamani said.

Menlo’s No. 1 Surya De Datta and Kavan Kumar were starting their third set. Even though they were on the way to a 6-3, 4-6, 10-5 victory over Paras Painuly and Rithvik Navad, nothing was yet certain. And the No. 3 doubles court, where Menlo’s James Park and Ben Levin would rally for a 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 victory over Eddie Zhang and Yinan Zhou, was not in view of Temsamani and Huang, but had gone eerily quiet.

“They were kind of going silent when we were in the tiebreak ... so I knew this match was definitely important because I know that a lot of matches can get close,” Temsamani said. “So, I knew this match could be the difference.”

To make matters worse, Temsamani had just double faulted on a serve to give Harker the 9-7 advantage. He took something off his ensuing serve to get it in on the first try, and Menlo outlasted Harker’s strong ground strokes to earn the point. Then Harker double faulted its serve to tie it 9-all, sending the set into a break to switch sides. Harker won the first point out of the break, but Huang’s two service points swung the advantage to force match point. Menlo then broke serve when a Harker lob shot missed long.

It was a few moments later that Menlo’s Brad Engel ran over to congratulate Temsamani and Huang on the championship clincher.

“We all just went nuts,” Temsamani said, “and were just so happy.”

It was the fourth time this season Menlo and Harker had met, with Menlo winning all four. But it was the first time Harker had used these particular doubles teams, mixing up its lineup with many of its strong singles players mixing at doubles.

“Yeah, it arguably gave them the best chance of winning,” Sargeant said.

Harker won its No. 1 singles match, with Tanishk Konduri defeating Menlo’s Cooper Han 3-6, 7-5, 14-12.

It was the first and only individual match Menlo lost in the tournament, after scoring 7-0 wins over each Cupertino in the tourney opener; No.8 Los Altos in the quarterfinals; and No. 4 Homestead in the semifinals.

“There’s still work to be done,” Sargeant said. “We kind of look to Nor Cals at this point.”

Menlo now advances to the CIF USTA Nor Cal Championship tournament, opening May 23 at Broadstone Sports Club in Folsom.