Singles Tennis Crown Passes from Williams to Newman

Marshall High’s No. 1 seed Noah Newman proved deserving of his ranking by defeating second-seeded and defending city champion Robert Williams of Dorsey Wednesday at the Raquet Centre in Studio City.

Williams, reportedly weakened by stomach flu, won only the middle set in the 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory by the new City Section singles champ.

“I thought I played pretty good when I had to,” Newman said. “He took the pace off the ball and caused me to make errors, but I was able to keep the ball on the court and keep the pressure on him.”

Said Marshall Coach Fred Scott: “Noah played really well overall. He was able to step up his game and outplay [Williams] in the third set.”

Williams appeared sluggish as Newman attacked the net. Williams was slow trying to retrieve Newman’s passing shots.

“It wasn’t known if Robert was going to be able to even play,” Dorsey Coach Dave Gordon said. “He showed a lot of heart and character by showing up.”

Williams gave credit to his opponent.

“Noah played really well. He kept me running around the court,” Williams said. “He moved the ball around . . . and kept a lot of pressure on me.”

In the third-place singles match, it only took 40 minutes for unseeded freshman Jesse Melton of the Los Angeles Center of Enriched Studies to defeat No. 4 seed James Oh of Chatsworth, 6-1, 6-1, to finish third in the singles competition.

“This was one of my quickest matches ever,” Melton said. “Everything was clicking.”