No. 3 Doubles Team Swings City Tennis Final to Chatsworth

Chatsworth High’s terrific trio of Rafael Huerta, Rudy Vargas and Ron Charles were expected to dominate singles play Friday.

They did.

Taft countered with dynamic doubles teams that were expected to give the Chancellors plenty of problems.

They did.

It was left for Chatsworth’s little-publicized doubles team of Thad Montalban and Brian Bettinger to make the difference in Chatsworth’s 17-12 1/2 victory in the City Section 4-A Division boys’ tennis championship at The Racquet Centre in Studio City. It was the Chancellors’ first City tennis title.

Montalban and Bettinger, who form Chatsworth’s No. 3 team, handed Taft’s No. 2 team of Eric Ficksman and Robbie Polak a 6-2 loss. Ficksman and Polak have reached the semifinals of the City Section tournament.

The win broke a 9-9 tie and doubled the pleasure for singles-minded Chatsworth (18-0), which received 11 of its points in 12 sets played by Huerta, Vargas and Charles.

“That win by Montalban and Bettinger was the key,” Chatsworth Coach Joe Santellano said. “Taft has some outstanding doubles teams, and (Montalban and Bettinger) really came through for us.”

Ficksman and Polak were coming off an emotional 7-6 (11-9) win over Mike Carone and Amir Fahimi that lasted nearly 1 1/2 hours.

“I think Mike and Amir wore them down,” Montalban said. “We were in better shape and pressed them pretty hard.”

Although Montalban and Bettinger were coming off a 6-3 loss to Derek Halpern and Andy Kimelman, they sailed to a 3-0 lead over Ficksman and Polak.

“With the match tied, 9-9, we knew we had to win,” Bettinger said. “We also played a lot smarter than we did before.”

Taft (13-4), which had lost both of its West Valley League meetings with Chatsworth this season, placed its hopes for an upset on its strong doubles play.

It nearly paid off.

Halpern and Kimelman won their three sets and helped Taft’s doubles teams account for 7 1/2 of Taft’s points. But Chatsworth’s ability to dominate singles play proved too much to overcome for Taft, which lost its second title match in the past three years.