Taft’s Mann Finally Falters in Tense, Well-Played Match : City tennis: Robert Williams of Dorsey wins singles championship in stirring battle between sophomores.

It was as if Taft High’s Dylan Mann and Dorsey’s Robert Williams simply stared at each other for 2 hours 25 minutes in the City Section Individual singles final Thursday at the Racquet Centre.

Until one of them finally flinched.

In a powerful, often spectacular, practically errorless three-set battle between two 10th-graders, Mann finally let his guard down.

He did so at a most inopportune time--leading by two points and needing only two more to win the third-set tiebreaker while serving.

Instead, Williams charged back to win the final four points for a 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 7-6 (7-5) victory.

“I haven’t had a match like this in a long time, but I wanted this bad,” Williams said. “Dorsey has gone to the finals many times, but they never win.

“I was playing tough. I was on today.”

Mann, 15, made him earn every point--which might have surprised Williams, 16, who had beaten Mann, 6-2, 6-2, in an age-group tournament earlier this year.

But Williams said he knew Mann had improved and expected a battle. He got one.

Mann broke Williams’ first service in the first set and led, 4-1, before Williams clawed back to force the first tiebreaker. Mann dominated the second set and closed it out by rifling four consecutive service winners that appeared to have Williams reeling.

“It really made me angry that I let him back in in the first set,” Mann said. “I got fired up in the second set. We were both intense in the third set.”

Both players held serve in the final set until Mann, down 4-3, committed an uncharacteristic double fault, then hit a forehand long, giving Williams a break and a 5-3 lead. Williams could have served out the match there. But Mann refused to wilt.

“I got fired up again,” Mann said. “I wasn’t going down then. I had been out on that court too long.”

Instead, Mann regained the momentum when he forced the tiebreaker.

Mann trailed, 3-2, in the tiebreaker but scored the next three points on an overhand smash, a backhand slice to the baseline and a hard forehand that tied up Williams at the net.

But Mann hit a lob wide on the next point, put a backhand return into the net and hit a forehand long. Suddenly, Williams led, 6-5, and was serving for the title.

Williams served hard to the corner and raced to the net while Mann retreated to make a return. The return floated over the net and Williams spiked it.

Game, set, match, championship.

“He came up big on all those points,” Mann said. “He put balls at my ankles that I couldn’t get over the net or he made me reach.

“I hit the ball well. At certain times I could have hit the ball better. I think I blew it in the first set. But you got to give him credit for coming back.”

Williams finished the season 17-0. Mann suffered his first loss in City competition after winning 15 matches, as well as all 12 sets he played in the round-robin team tournament three weeks ago.