Publication: The East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press

By Cailin Riley

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If the finals match in the Division IV boys tennis tournament at Shoreham/Wading River High School on Monday was any indication, the battle for supremacy in the singles draw should be pretty fun to watch for the next few years.

Westhampton Beach sophomore Richard Sipala outlasted Southampton freshman Jeremy Dubin in three sets, dropping the first set 6-4 before rallying 6-4, 6-3 in the second and third sets to earn his first-ever division crown.

Two weeks ago, the duo faced each other in a League VII match, with Sipala prevailing in two sets, but this time around Dubin was determined to make his opponent work a little harder and in the early stages of the match, an upset seemed to be brewing.

“Jeremy came out firing right from the hip. He couldn’t miss,” Westhampton Beach head coach John Czartosieski said. “He was painting lines and putting Richard on the defensive.”

Ultimately, however, Sipala had the edge in the stamina department. Both Czartosieski and Southampton head coach Richard “Juni” Wingfield agreed that fatigue may have become a factor for Dubin, a 13-year-old who advanced ahead one grade academically in school this year. The players were tied at 4-4 in the second set before Sipala rattled off two straight points to win the second set.

Wingfield said he advised Dubin to take advantage of the full 90 seconds offered to each player during breaks between points, but when he asked Dubin if he wanted to take the full 10-minute break offered after the second set, the player said he preferred to go right back out on the court.

Wingfield said he regretted that decision and if he had to do it again, he would have insisted that Dubin take the break.

“Sometimes, you get so involved in the level of tennis that he’s playing that you forget he’s still only 13 years old,” Wingfield said. “I honestly believe it would have made a difference.”

Both Wingfield and Czartosieski agreed that Dubin was playing some of his finest tennis in the first set and into the second before fatigue became a factor.

“He was hitting the heck out of the ball,” Wingfield said. “He was hitting absolute winners. But this is part of the learning process for him. He’s on a remarkable journey and he’s done a remarkable job for his age.”

Sipala said he was impressed with the way his opponent played and attributed the first-set loss partially to himself and partially to Dubin’s tenacity.

“I think it was just consistency, but Jeremy definitely improved a lot,” Dubin said when asked what he struggled with in the first set. “He definitely caught me off guard a little bit. He just played really well.”

Sipala said he was happy to win his first division title, but that he’s far from satisfied.

“The goal is more to qualify for states and obviously to do well in the team playoffs,” he said. “This is definitely one step closer to that goal, so it was good.”

Both Dubin and Sipala have made their way into the upper echelon of the county’s singles players at young ages, but Sipala got to enjoy the ultimate prize on Monday. Although Westhampton Beach tore through its League VII foes without much of a challenge this year, Sipala was tested by several of the stronger players in the county when his squad took on tough non-league opponents and he showed a penchant for winning grinders. In five three-set matches this season, Sipala is undefeated and Czartosieski said he was confident that his top singles player would prevail on Monday even after dropping the first set.

“I just wanted to keep Richard’s confidence up as best I could and let him know that he needed to settle down a bit,” he said. “He was having a hard time with his rhythm and timing. I told Richard before the second set ended that I really believed his fitness would ultimately prevail.”

Sipala and Dubin were on a collision course in the singles draw, with the top-seeded Sipala beating Dubin’s teammate, third-seed Jack Keenan 6-4, 6-5 to make it to the final. All of his other wins were in easy straight-sets victories. Dubin dispatched second-seed Henry Lee of Ross 6-3, 6-0 in the semis and had straight-sets wins in his other matches as well.

Lee, an eighth-grader, defeated Keenan in three sets in the consolation match, with Keenan winning the first set 6-2 before Lee prevailed 6-3, 6-3 in the final two sets.

Lee now has two consecutive wins over Keenan, although prior to those matches, Keenan had had more success in the head-to-head matchup.

“Jack is an intense player with tremendous skills, but I think he lost his concentration after the first set,” Wingfield said. “When you win that first set, you tend to put it on cruise instead of overdrive.”