Concord-Carlisle boys, Boston Latin girls tennis teams advance

LEXINGTON – As three of the other matches around him finished Tuesday, Charlie Derkazarian knew the third set of his up-and-down No. 3 singles match could decide whether or not his Concord-Carlisle boys tennis team would advance to the state final.

He was up for that challenge.

Teammates rushed his section of the Gallagher Tennis Courts after he sealed a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win to help lift the No. 2 Patriots to a 3-2 Div. 1 state semifinal win over sixth-seeded Brookline.

His performance, paired with wins from Lucas Bikkesbakker and Ben Ostrovsky, powered Concord-Carlisle to a sweep in singles play. It’ll play top-seeded St. John’s Prep for the Div. 1 state title.

“I embrace it, I really like when I get the clinching win – the win to go to the finals, it feels good,” Derkazarian said. “Obviously, it’s a team game, but it just feels good (to play that role). … I can’t really describe the feeling, it’s just euphoric. It feels really good.”

Bikkesbakker sealed the No. 1 singles match 6-4, 6-3, before Brookline’s first doubles team of twins Kiran and Ravin Bhatia grinded out the second set of a 6-0, 7-6 win. From there, every other match went to three sets.

Dhevin Nahata battled back in an epic second singles battle, but Ostrovsky powered through for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win. Derkazarian finished his match before second doubles did, but both lasted over two hours. Brookline’s duo of Peter Khudyakov and Anish Shrivastava edged out a 7-5 win in the tiebreak of the third set.

“It wasn’t stressful, but it was intense,” Concord-Carlisle head coach Marcus Lewis said. “It’s too bad that one team has to walk away without moving on. Obviously I’m very happy for my guys. They’ve worked extremely hard, we’ve done a lot of extra sessions. We’ve extended our practice times, some of the guys trained over vacation. So, they’ve paid their dues.”

Derkazarian fell behind 5-0 in the first set to Brookline’s Winston Chan. But after winning the next four games, Derkazarian felt a momentum shift despite losing the set.

“My opponent was very good, all credit to him,” he said. “But actually (one of my teammates) was there with me the whole match. He was cheering me on the whole time and was getting me really hyped. And then I just started gaining momentum, and I think that momentum just carried me through. … My attack, my forehand, my backhand, it was all really working.”

“He dug a little deeper today,” added Lewis. “He upped his game today, he upped it for sure.”

Bikkesbakker trailed 4-3 in the first set of his match, and Ostrovsky traded games with Nahata through much of the second and third sets.

The first doubles team (Dan Lynch and Arman Samani) took the Bhatia twins to tiebreak in the second set after a 6-0 loss in the first set, while TJ Fahey and Pedro Nachbin battled in their second doubles match’s third set.

Latin rules

On the girls side, longtime Boston Latin coach Paulanne Wilson didn’t feel the need to use last year’s loss in the Div. 1 state semifinals as a motivational talking point entering the same round a year later.

Everyone in the program remembered on their own just fine.

By defeating sixth-seeded Newton South, 4-1, at the Gallagher Tennis Courts, the focused No. 2 Wolfpack avenged that loss to secure their first state final trip since 2003.

“We should’ve been here last year, I mean it was just a bummer,” Wilson said. “They’re a great bunch of girls. They take it seriously, they take tennis seriously, so there’s a ton of tennis they play. … I didn’t have to say a word because we already knew where we were last year and where our goal was this year.”

Boston Latin’s young stars flourished, as all four match wins came in straight sets. Sophomore Halina Nguyen won her No. 1 singles match 6-2, 6-1, while fellow sophomore Vanessa Vu took No. 2 singles 6-1, 6-4, despite a slow start in the second set.

Freshman Lillian Nguyen and eighth-grader Gisele Ngo secured No. 1 doubles 6-2, 6-0, while Rachel Lantsman won No. 3 singles 6-3, 6-3.

“They’re young, but they play tournaments, so they know the crowd and everything,” Wilson said. “You just have to let them know that everything’s OK. Everything’s OK. If it doesn’t go your way, it’s still going to be OK. But you’ve just got to fight to the end.”

Vu showed that fight in the second set of her match, overcoming a deficit to deliver her win in straight sets.

“She did (get back on track),” Wilson said. “She was definitely behind in the second set. But she believed in herself, I believed in her, and that’s all that counts.”

Boston Latin will face No. 4 Wellesley in the state final, searching for its first title since it three-peated from 2001-03.