Surapol a Surprise Winner in Singles Final

The murmurs and whispers about a possible upset began when Cerritos Whitney High senior Chris Surapol fought off match point in the second-set tiebreaker.

Then the 5-foot-7, 130-pound player did what nobody else had done this season when he rallied to defeat senior Doug Stewart of Malibu, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1, in the Southern Section boys’ tennis individual tournament singles final Saturday at SeaCliff Tennis Club in Huntington Beach.

“I was just trying to play well,” Surapol said. “I’m not real big and I don’t have a lot of power but I can get the ball back, and I was doing it today.”

There were plenty of contenders for the title, the top-seeded and previously unbeaten Stewart chief among them. Surapol was the most surprising of the semifinalists who started the day.

Besides Stewart (63-1), the defending champion who was attempting to become the first player to win the title two years in a row since Richard Bohrnstedt of Redlands did it in 1967-68, second-seeded Aaron Yovan of Irvine University and third-seeded Rylan Rizza of Palos Verdes Peninsula also were in the competition until Surapol knocked them out.

Surapol displayed plenty of speed and power in upsetting Rizza, 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-1, in the quarterfinals Friday, and then topping Yovan, 7-6 (5), 6-4, in the semifinals.

“I got all this confidence,” said Surapol, a nifty shot-maker who plans to walk on at UCLA next year. “I was placing the ball well and hitting it well.”

The Virginia-bound Stewart took the loss hard. He had a match point at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker but hit a backhand volley into the net. Surapol aced his next serve for 7-6 and a won the tiebreaker and set when Stewart netted a forehand return.

“It’s real disappointing, especially because I had so many chances,” Stewart said. “He just played too good. In the third set, there was nothing I could do.”

Surapol (74-6 in sets) broke Stewart to open the third set as the two played six deuce points. Surapol held the next game with four aces for a 2-0 lead. After Stewart held serve, Surapol fought off three break points to take a 3-1 advantage.

Corona del Mar’s Garrett Snyder and Carsten Ball defeated Los Alamitos’ John Mano and Jason Wood, 6-3, 7-5, to win the doubles title. Snyder also won the doubles title last year with a different partner.