Huerta Warms Up to Nail Down Title : High school tennis: Chatsworth star breaks sweat before putting heat on Tombakian in City final.

Rafael Huerta’s hair was dripping wet, his T-shirt soaked with perspiration. His face was reddened by the afternoon heat Friday, but the dimples on his cheeks seemed to be getting the biggest workout.

Huerta was smiling big.

The Chatsworth High senior was talking to his friends, laughing and looking every bit like the champion of the 1993 City Section individual tennis tournament.

There was only one catch--Huerta had yet to play the final.

Temperatures were reaching the upper 80s in Studio City, but Huerta opted for a feverish 45-minute warm-up session with two practice partners before the 2 p.m. championship match. As sweat dripped from Huerta’s chin, he pronounced himself ready to defend his 1992 championship.

Then he played like a pro, defeating Arthur Tombakian of Marshall, 6-2, 6-4, at the Universal City Racquet Centre to complete a 28-0 season.

In the third game of the first set, Huerta dug out a difficult backhand shot on the baseline and produced a wicked top-spin lob that looped and dived over a charging Tombakian for a service-break winner.

Huerta, leading, 3-1, held his next two serves and broke Tombakian again in the eighth game to claim the set.

Tombakian decided to be more aggressive in the second set, but no strategy seemed to work against Huerta. Tombakian forced Huerta to break point three times in the second set. Huerta, seemingly toying with his opponent, turned him away each time.

“I usually start warming up in the second set,” said Huerta, a senior who was seen matching blows--one on two--against Noah Newman and Rudy Vargas before his match. “I was warmed up. I was ready. That made a big difference.”

Tombakian, by contrast, was not sweating when he took the court. He looked fresh and ready. But he soon looked helpless and discouraged against Huerta, the native of Mexicali, Mexico, who is bound for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on a partial scholarship.

“I wasn’t surprised; he’s a good player,” Tombakian said. “I was ready and I thought I played well. But he just seemed to turn it on whenever he wanted.”

With Huerta sensing victory in the final game, Tombakian committed his fourth double fault of the first set. Then, at break and set point, Huerta dinked a powerful Tombakian shot back over the net, where it appeared to stick in the ground.

Tombakian could only stand on the baseline and watch.

Time and time again throughout the match, Huerta hit balls that Tombakian couldn’t catch with a butterfly net. And Huerta did most of his damage at the net, with crazy slices that would scoot away from his opponent or soft drop shots that would die on one bounce.

At times, Huerta played with such ease, he appeared to move in slow motion.

“I think I was in a zone and he didn’t hit anything to make me miss,” Huerta said.

The second set was all Huerta: 14 winners, seven service winners and 16 unforced errors. The errant shots usually came when Huerta misfired at the corners, and they had more to do with Tombakian’s break opportunities than Tombakian.

Huerta ended two of those chances with a backhand passing shot and another top-spin lob, and then he turned it on when Tombakian served to stay alive at 5-4. On match point, Tombakian served and rushed toward the net, but Huerta wound up and blasted a backhand return right at Tombakian’s chest.

Tombakian, helpless again, threw up his racket in self-defense to stop the ball, letting out an anguished grunt and ending his misery.