MODESTO —Jonas Mueller and Yok Chai Ma passed on the opportunity to possibly square off against each other in the Valley Oak League Tournament singles final.
They instead decided to pair up for doubles competition with their sights on a bigger prize ahead. Manteca High’s top two players vanquished each of their four opponents in short order Thursday at Central Catholic, running away with the championship.
“They did outstanding,” Manteca coach Frank Fontana said. “Going into it, I felt pretty confident in their abilities to win the tournament. To me, it was a foregone conclusion. They could have easily been in the singles final playing against each other.”
In the end, Mueller and Ma downed two tandems from VOL team champion Central Catholic. They swept past Spencer Cole and Julian Marquez 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals, then defeated Danny Barraza and Nolan Croasdale in the title round, 6-2, 6-1.
“Going into it we knew we were one of the best teams, it was just about focusing and staying in the zone,” Ma said. “We’re trying to win it all in the Section tournament, because he’s not going to be here next year.”
Ma, a freshman, is the third member of his family to earn a championship under Fontana. As for Mueller he is looking to make the most out of his lone season at Manteca. The foreign-exchange student from Germany went undefeated against VOL competition. If separated, Ma and Mueller would each have a tougher time challenging for the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II singles title.
“The intent was to always try and compete for the title in the Section individual tournament,” Fontana said.
With Mueller’s strong serve and Ma’s combination of range and power at the net, the two were able to complement each other’s abilities Thursday despite little time together as doubles partners.
“I think we play real well together,” Mueller said. “We didn’t have misunderstandings, most of the time.”
They were one of just two duos from the area to reach the quarterfinal round. Fellow Buffaloes Michael Levchenko and Michael Osanna opened with an 8-3 victory over East Union’s Benjamin Potter and Guadalupe Reyes. They also knocked off Christian Dequit and Patrick Overen of Kimball 8-4 before falling to Central Catholic’s Cole-Marquez combination 1-6, 3-6 in the quarterfinals.
Mueller and Ma were awarded the top seed and a first-round bye. They dispatched Weston Ranch’s Ruben Avalos and Victor Perez 8-1 and blanked the Kimball connection of Shishir Dommeli and Ahmed Shakil, 6-0, 6-0.
The all-Oakdale singles final was won by Caleb Poling.
The SJS Individual Tournament takes place May 16-17 at Johnson Ranch Racquet Club in Roseville. Before that is the Section’s team playoffs beginning next week. Manteca qualified as the third-place team out of the VOL.
“They have not played a whole lot together,” Fontana said. “With the break, we’ll have a chance now to work on doubles play and fine tune it for the individual tournament.”
