Tennis: Meyer, Mustangs Sweep EBAL Championships

Monte Vista High tennis player Mark Meyer came into Day 2 of the East Bay Athletic League championships with a near-perfect record.

His lone blemish on the year was a loss to top-seeded Allen Xu of California during the regular season.

"I lost to him the first time so I knew he would be tough to beat," said Meyer, the No. 2 seed. "We've been practicing for this all year."

Meyer beat Foothill's Nick Krebs 6-0, 6-1 in his semifinal match to get his rematch with Xu, who advanced to the final with a win over fourth-seeded Monte Vista freshman Anthony Lim, 6-3, 6-1.

Meyer took the first set 6-1, before Xu evened the match with 6-4 win in the second set at which point he started to cramp up and showed obvious signs of discomfort.

The West Point-bound senior tried to battle through the pain in the final set, but with limited lateral movement it was for naught. With Meyer up 5-0, Xu decided to retire.

"It's unfortunate that he got injured and I had to win this way," Meyer said. "I'm happy though … this has always been my goal."

Meyer will represent the Mustangs in the North Coast Section championships, which start May 7 at Santa Rosa High. Monte Vista's Shaun Chaudhuri won the event last year as a sophomore, but will just compete with the Mustangs during the NCS team tournament this season.

Monte Vista's doubles team of Brendan Wee and Chris Kipouras also won an EBAL title on Friday at the Livermore Tennis Center. The top-seeded duo defeated second-seeded Adhitya Mohan and Leon Tejwani of Cal, 6-0, 6-4.

Wee and Kipouras started playing doubles together two weeks ago, but have quickly developed a nice rapport.

"It's a pleasure to play with him," Wee said. "The guy never misses a shot."

Kiporas was the EBAL champion last year as a sophomore, but said he didn't feel the need to play singles again this year.

"I didn't really care about singles and Mark (Meyer) really deserved a shot," he said. "Plus I wanted to play with (Wee) in his senior year."

Wee and Kipouras will be back on the court Monday in the EBAL doubles-only tournament, which is held to determine who represents the league in NCS doubles. Players who participated in the singles event this week are allowed to try to qualify for NCS in doubles.

Cal's Xu is expected to team with Mohan in the event.