Despite Hopes, Highlander Duo Falls the Second Time Around

Brad Steinberg and Brian Mintz of Granada Hills High were looking forward to playing Palisades’ Blake Baumgarten and Peter Shirley in the City Section doubles final Thursday.

It gave the Highlander tandem a chance to avenge a 6-1 loss in the City team championship match three weeks ago.

Steinberg and Mintz, who were unseeded in the individual tournament, hoped a longer, best-of-three-set match would work to their advantage.

But again, Baumgarten and Shirley proved too strong, winning 6-2, 6-3 at the Warner Center Tennis Club to secure the fifth consecutive City doubles title for Palisades.

“Our strategy was to play them the same way, except with more intensity,” Mintz said.

The Dolphin duo broke Mintz to take a 4-2 lead in the first set, then broke Steinberg two games later to win the set.

Steinberg and Mintz were hurt by the use of no-ad scoring, in which deuce points are eliminated and the seventh point decides the game. The Highlander team lost two games in each set when faced with a winner-take-all point.

“That’s the way we’ve been playing all season, so we’re used to it,” Mintz said of the no-ad format. “We just didn’t play the big points well enough.”

Said Steinberg: “It’s like the designated hitter rule in baseball. It’s impure.

“That’s not the way tennis is supposed to be played.”

Mintz was broken early in the second set, but Shirley netted an overhead smash three games later to pull the Granada Hills duo back on serve at 2-3.

Steinberg double-faulted twice in the eighth game, losing his serve again to give Baumgarten and Shirley a 5-3 lead.

“There were a lot of competitive points,” said Steinberg, a freshman. “This was the closest 6-2, 6-3 match I’ve ever played.”

Palisades senior Ricky Rollins defeated freshman Norman Tam of Belmont, 6-2, 6-4, to give the Dolphins a sweep of the team, singles, and doubles titles for the third consecutive year.

The doubles team of Steve Choi and Burton Newman of El Camino Real finished fourth after losing to Dorsey’s Geoffrey Grey and Damion Brown, 6-3, 6-4.