Matthews wins CIF title

SEAL BEACH — Corona del Mar High boys’ tennis coach Tim Mang got out of his seat Saturday to congratulate Fabian Matthews.

Not so fast.

Matthews’ shot in the CIF Southern Section Individuals boys’ tennis singles title match was just wide. There was no second-set victory in the tiebreaker. In fact, No. 3-seeded Matthews, a Corona del Mar senior, squandered three match points and lost that marathon tiebreaker to top-seeded Arroyo Grande senior Andre Dome.

But Matthews, as he has always done at the CIF Individuals, pressed on. He also made history in both the last match of his high school tennis career and Mang’s high school coaching career.

Matthews’ 6-2, 6-7 (11), 6-1 victory over Dome at Seal Beach Tennis Center gave him his third straight CIF Individuals title, after winning doubles the last two years with Dustin Hladek.

Matthews is only the third boy in the history of the event, dating back to 1922, to win an Individuals title three times. He’s also CdM’s first singles winner since current professional player Taylor Dent won as a freshman in 1996.

Allen Cleveland (1949-51 singles champ) and Jackie Douglas (1952-54 singles champ), both of Santa Monica, are the other three-time winners.

“That’s pretty cool,” said Matthews, who will play at UC Irvine next year. “I liked this one a lot. I had to do all the work by myself. It was a lot more grueling, and a lot more painful. In doubles, Dustin and I were kind of underdogs, unseeded. I guess people thought we weren’t supposed to win, then we beat Santa Barbara [in the doubles final in 2006]. They were both really different.”

Matthews and Dome are very familiar with each other; Matthews estimated they’d played about 10 times in various junior tournaments. At one point, both were considering going to USC to play tennis. Instead, they’ll both be playing in the Big West Conference — Dome is headed to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

But Matthews hadn’t compiled a great record in the past against Dome. He lost to Dome in straight sets in both the Fullerton and Long Beach junior tournaments earlier this year.

On Saturday, however, Matthews came out on top of his game. He broke Dome’s serve in the third game of the match, opening up a 2-1 lead after the game that went to five deuces. From there, Matthews cruised to take the set, 6-2.

Dome was a bit tired after playing a three-set semifinal against Brentwood’s Walker Kehrer earlier in the day. Matthews, meanwhile, had a relatively easy 6-3, 6-1 victory over Torsten Keil-Long of Claremont.

Dome also had to finish his quarterfinal match against University’s Jason Lin earlier Saturday, due to rain the day before.

“I’m not going to say that was the main reason I lost in the finals,” Dome said. “Fabian played a lot better than me; he deserved it. The rain came and it wasn’t up to me, it was up to Mother Nature. It was tough, but I don’t want to complain about it ... Fabian played well the whole match. You have to give him credit.”

Dome did bounce back to win the second set. There were no breaks of serve as the set went to a tiebreaker, and Dome battled off the aforementioned three match points to even the match at one-set all.

Soon, however, it became clear that Dome was cramping up and could hardly walk on the court. Down, 3-0, in the third set, he fell to the ground while serving and was treated for a couple of minutes by Fabian Matthews’ dad, Oscar, who is a doctor.

Dome gamely battled on until the end, but Matthews’ blistering forehands were just too much to handle. He also began mixing in drop shots.

“In the second set, I was going for too much,” Matthews said. “His forehand is exactly like mine, how he just spanks and slaps winners. I just told myself, ‘Don’t go to his forehand, and mix up the shots a lot.’ ”

After Matthews won the match on a service winner, Mang could finally get out of his chair to congratulate the CdM senior.

“It’s a great way to go out for me,” Mang said. “Fabian played well. There were some unbelievable points by both guys. [Matthews] just picked it up a level. That’s what he had to do, and he really did it. It could have been very frustrating after losing that tiebreaker.”

Matthews was frustrated at that point, yelling at himself that he gave away the set. However, he found a way to win, just like he has always seemed to do at Seal Beach this time of year.

“It’s really exciting,” Matthews said. It’s a good going-away gift for coach. I’m happy this is how my career ended in high school, and now I’m hoping to start winning at NCAAs at UCI.”

In the CIF Individuals doubles championship match, Thousand Oaks junior Denis Lin and freshman Marcos Giron topped Peninsula seniors Tyler Bowman and Jon Kazarian, 6-4, 6-3. Bowman and Kazarian are also both headed to UC Irvine next year.