The562’s coverage of Long Beach tennis is sponsored by the Long Beach State Tennis Boosters.
After a long week of tennis at the El Dorado Park tennis courts, Long Beach Poly’s Markus Matiauda and Elijiah Wong brought home the doubles title on Friday afternoon. The Jackrabbit duo withstood a tough challenge in the final, ultimately prevailing 6-7, 7-5, 10-4.
“We’re both singles players so learning how to communicate with each other on the court took time,” Matiauda said. “But after we figured out what worked best for us, our game started to get more competitive and led us to win.”
The first place match had momentum changes that left spectators wondering who would ultimately take home the title. Wilson sophomores Leo Bauch and Luke Emigh were able to come back in the first set after being down 1-4, winning 7-6.
“Our top pair went in as prepared as they could be,” Wilson coach Nick Medina said. “Leo was fighting fatigue after playing singles all week, and they went out and did the best they could.”
A series of long rallies led the Bruins to a win in the first set tiebreak, and the match remained very even throughout the early evening. After Matiauda and Wong claimed the second set, 7-5, the pairs went to a super tiebreaker to decide the championship. Ultimately, the veteran Jackrabbits pulled it out by winning the race to 10 points in set three.
“Both of these pairs battled really hard today,” Poly coach Ricardo Montecinos said. “There were long runs of momentum on both sides of the net, it really came down to who was able to sustain the momentum longer.”
“Last year these guys were unstoppable, we had to bring our A-game to get the results we wanted,” Wong said. “We were in the same place they were in the first set, down 1-4, tasting victory just like we did. They loosened up a little bit and we used that to our advantage.”
Wilson went into the championship games on Friday with a win-win situation for the third place match. Freshman duo Daniel Gerstrer and Filip Surdran took on a more seasoned pair, senior Zane Driskill and sophomore Mateo Matta.
The All-Wilson third place game was a great watch, as the momentum from each side of the net made for a competitive match. Ultimately, the sophomore-senior pair took home the win for the Bruins, 6-4, 3-6, the winning the tiebreak 10-5.
Next up in local tennis is the CIF-SS playoffs. Wilson finds itself in a terrific position after the brackets were released on Monday morning. The Bruins are the top seed in the Division 4 bracket, and will host either Fairmont Prep or Downey on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
The Moore League also has representation in Division 3, where Millikan will travel to play Whitney in round one and Long Beach Poly will be at St. Margarets in their playoff opener. Both matches are scheduled for 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
