Cerritos College freshman men's tennis player
Derek Siddiqui (Los Alamitos HS)
entered his state tournament semi-final match on
Saturday against top-seeded Gabor Toth of Mt.
San Antonio College as a mission to jump out
fast and keep the pressure on his opponent. He
did exactly that by double-breaking Toth in the
first set to win, 6-2.
But a more patient Toth looked to wear down Siddiqui
and it resulted in an injury that limited his
ability to work the baselines. While serving a
3-4 in the second set, Siddiqui pulled a muscle
in his forearm and wound up losing the second
set, 3-6. He wasn't able to recover from the
injury and fell in the third set, 3-6.
As a result, Siddiqui (22-5), who advanced to
the quarterfinals of the South Coast Conference
Championships, Ojai Tournament and Southern
California Championships in the previous three
weeks, becomes just the third All-American in
Falcon history. He joined Doug Edwards
and Jason Wall, who advanced to the state
championship match in doubles in 2008 and then
reached the semi-finals in 2009.
