Gabriele Can’t Do It Alone : Tennis: Birmingham’s No. 1 player wins all his sets, but City 3-A title goes to Eagle Rock.

Anthony Gabriele leaned against a chain-link fence, visibly downcast and speaking quietly about getting to the threshold of a championship and watching it slip away.

Gabriele’s words were barely audible, because the Eagle Rock High boys’ tennis team had started a delirious celebration after the Eagles clinched a 17 1/2-12 victory Thursday over Birmingham in the City Section 3-A championship match at the Racquet Centre.

“I’m so depressed right now,” said Gabriele, Birmingham’s No. 1 singles player. “What can I say?”

Gabriele had won all four of his sets in the round-robin match, but he could not stop the whooping, singing, chanting, hugging and hand-slapping of the Eagles, who finished 16-0.

Gabriele wasn’t alone. Taft High singles player Ali Fatourechi knows just how he feels.

Taft was beaten in the City 4-A final for the third year in a row in a match taking place on the other side of the club. The Toreadors fell to Palisades, 19 1/2-10.

“Every year I have hopes of winning, and every year I come in feeling good about our chances,” said Fatourechi, who has played on all three runner-up teams. “I come pumped up and ready to win a championship. But once they start winning points, everything changes.”

Fatourechi, playing No. 3 singles, won only two of his four sets. But it would not have made a difference had he won all four, because the Dolphins swept nine doubles sets, picking up 13 1/2 points almost at the snap of a finger.

Taft (12-2) was hoping to compensate for weaknesses in doubles by dominating in singles. Dylan Mann swept at No. 1, but Palisades (15-1) spoiled those plans by winning six of the other 12 singles sets.

Singles was Birmingham’s undoing. The Braves (12-5) lost 10 of 14 singles sets, but they might have been closer than the score indicated. They lost six sets by two games. Had they won those six, the senior-dominated Braves, who had reached the final for the first time in 13 seasons, would have won the match.

“I thought we were ready,” said Gabriele, a sophomore. “This was the year. We’re not going to have another chance like this, unless we get some players--and I don’t see that happening.”

With Mann, a junior who is 10-0 in matches, 12-0 in playoff sets, and Gabriele (11-1, 16-0) being underclassmen, Taft and Birmingham have dominant singles players who could lead them back to the final next year. Fatourechi, too, is a junior. He doesn’t want to lose again.