MODESTO — For the second straight season, the Turlock High tennis program left the Central California Athletic League tournaments with a double championship.
This year’s title-winning duo were seniors Yaqoob Tarakhail and Rashmeet Singh, best friends who had dreamed of joining forces as a doubles team in the postseason since the moment they began playing tennis as freshmen.
“It feels great,” Tarakhail said.
“I always wanted to win a CCAL championship,” Singh added. “For the four years I’ve been here playing, I’ve been going (to the tournament as both a singles and doubles player). It’s good to finally cross that line, to get over that hill.”
Seeded 15th out of the 16 pairings that entered Thursday’s tournament at Modesto Junior College, the two Bulldogs dominated opponents, only losing three games between the first three rounds.
Against the top-seeded grouping of Downey High seniors Brady Black and Luke Ruijssenaars in Friday’s final, the Turlock team persevered through a back-and-forth second game. Having won the first game by a 6-3 score, the Bulldogs entered a critical 10th set holding a thin 5-4 lead. The tension built as Tarakhail misfired on his first two serves to put the team in a hole, but encouragement from Singh and a revamped gameplan.
“I was nervous because if we don’t win this one, we have to go to the tiebreaker,” said Tarakhail. “From there, I just said that I would hit it to the baseline so they could return it hard and we could go for the kill at the net.”
The plan worked all the way through match point, with the ball being returned between the teams four times before Singh delivered a kill from the far baseline.
The 6-3, 6-4 win in the title match put Tarakhail and Singh in the company of former teammates Matteo Hernandez and Landon Tilby, who won the doubles crown a year ago.
Tarakhail described Singh as being the better hitter, while Singh praised Tarakhail for his mental toughness and optimism. It’s what they say is a winning combination.
The duo defeated teammates Juan Carlos Valadez and Keane Stephens in the opening round by a 6-0, 6-1 score. In the second round, they won 6-0, 6-0 over the Enochs team of Emanuele Lippi and Jonas Platzek. Tarakhail and Singh punched their ticket to the final with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Pitman’s Calvin Lin and Anthony Stessman.
The chemistry between Singh and Tarakhail runs deep. In January of 2023, Tarakhail was inspired by brother Edris, a year older and a four-year tennis player with Turlock, to take to the courts. He floated the idea to Singh in a math class, and it wasn’t long before the two started practicing together ahead of the season.
Four years later, they became champions of the CCAL.
“We are really happy for this because we worked very hard and had to wait three years to finally get paired together,” Singh said. “Every year it was something different, whether it was injuries to other players or one of us would lose. But we got it done.”
Lin and Stessman won the doubles third place match over Turlock’s Peter Buie and Daiel Joseph 6-4, 3-6 (10-3). The Pitman duo opened with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Brandon Yie and Edbert Opelentisima of Enochs. They then beat Downey’s Tony Castro and Ben Sensney 6-0, 6-3.
In singles action Friday, Turlock senior Damien Acosta fell short in the championship match to Enochs freshman Dylan Edroso by a 6-1, 6-2 score. Acosta won his opening match against Ruijssenaars 6-0, 6-3. He then won 6-0, 6-2 against Pitman’s Sebastian Russell. Acosta proceeded to knock off top-seeded Akhil Patel of Enochs 6-4, 6-2.
