May,21,2019
Photo Credit: Stefen Rosner/LI Tennis Magazine
With the Nassau County Championship all even at three matches a piece, Port Washington’s second doubles team of Luke Zohouri and Allon Pevzner raced out to a 5-1 lead against Miles Capell and Josh Elenowitz in the deciding third set.
Capell and Elenowitz hung tough, saving an array of match points, but the deficit was just too large, as the Port Washington pair closed out their 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win to clinch their team’s 4-3 county championship win.
“I was just so pumped up,” said Zohouri. “I was a little bit nervous but not too bad because our coach told us to relax and play our game, and that’s exactly what we did.”
“The first time we played them they beat us in two sets, and the second time it went to three sets, so we knew that coming into it we were improving, and we had a really good chance of getting ahead, and we pulled through,” added Pevzner.
The county final was tightly contested throughout. Kabir Rajpal, the county’s singles champion, beat Dan Greilsheimer at first singles to put Syosset in front early.
Soon after, Gabe Brancatelli pulled Port Washington even with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Brian Gao at second singles, and the Vikings jumped in front as Zach Gruber and Ryan Siegel won 6-3, 6-1 over Peter Bukary and Azim Gangat at first doubles.
“We’ve lost to this team twice, and we also lost to the Roslyn first doubles team three times, we came into our match on Friday [versus Roslyn] and this match just being aggressive and doing everything we can,” said Siegel. “We played there was nothing to lose and that was the key to our victories in both matches.”
After Charlie Dash and Josh Rosen won at third doubles for Port Washington, Jeremy Levine brought the Braves closer with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Candrin Chris at third singles, and the fourth doubles tandem of Connor Chen and Kourosh Moghaddassi tied the overall match with a straight-sets victory.
With six matches in the books, the county final hung in the balance of the second doubles court, where Zohouri and Pevzner clinched Port Washington’s first county title since 2000.
“This was a true team effort,” said Port Washington head coach Shane Helfner. “We don’t rely on certain courts to win on certain days. Everyone knows they can win. I think towards the end of this match we started to gain some momentum and it kind of became contagious throughout the courts and felt some positive energy coming our way. So I’m just really proud that we were able to see it all the way through.”
Port Washington will take on Suffolk County winner Hills East in the Long Island Championship, set for Wednesday, May 22 at The Hamlet Golf & Country Club.
