Looking to be the first Cerritos College men's tennis doubles team to win the California Community College Athletic Association championships, sophomores Derek Siddiqui (Los Alamitos HS) and Johnny Chai (Cerritos HS/UC Riverside) were probably expecting to play #2-seeded Alex Sarkissian and Trevor Campbell of Glendale College in the championship match at Fresno City College this weekend. The Falcon duo, seeded #1 in Southern California after their win in the Southern California Championships, were just as shocked as anyone when Cypress College's Oliver Andrzejczuk and Torsten Keil-Long posted a 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 win in the other semi-final to earn the right to face the Cerritos tandem that handed Rodrigio Shaefer and Sergio Chip of College of the Desert a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 decision in their semi-final match.

 

    The championships pitting Siddiqui and Chai against the Chargers duo would be a re-match of their meeting in the first match of the season, where the Falcon duo posted a 7-6, 6-1 win. However, in the state championship match, Andrzejczuk and Keil-Long prevented Siddiqui and Chai of becoming the first-ever state doubles champion in school history, when they posted a 6-2, 7-5 win.

 

    Siddiqui and Chai opened doubles play with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 win over the North's #8-seeded team of Ricky Hui and Hicham Larhnimi of Foothill College and followed that with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 win over John Kariman and Jeffrey Leo of Fresno City College, the North's #4-seeded team. That led them to their win in the semi-finals over Shaefer and Chip, and catapulted them to the state championship match.

 

    Siddiqui also qualified in singles play as the #3-seed from Southern California, but dropped a 2-6, 1-6 decision to #6-seeded Northern California player John Bertram of Fresno City College. For his efforts this season, Siddiqui was also named the ITA State Player of the Year.