Boys tennis: Analy’s Jonathan Doughtie wins NBL singles crown

It’s been quite the season for Analy’s Jonathan Doughtie.

After going undefeated in league play this year, the Tigers sophomore can now call himself back-to-back NBL singles tournament champion.

Doughtie won both his matches 6-0, 6-0 on day one, setting up a semifinal with Maria Carrillo’s Luke Negri. Negri upset the fourth seed en route to the semifinals.

While he would beat Negri 6-2, 6-2, he suffered a scare early in the match. After hitting a ball, Doughtie slipped and fell on his tailbone, which would give him discomfort the rest of the day.

“For the first ten seconds I was a little worried about what it would do,” Doughtie said. “After that I was pretty sure I would be able to play, but with a little bit of pain.”

In the other semifinal, Maria Carrillo’s Chase Carter beat Cardinal Newman’s Aiden Buerger 6-4, 6-4. For the second year in a row, the final match would be between Doughtie and Carter.

If the pain did bother him, Doughtie certainly didn’t show it in the final, as he won 6-1, 6-0. The Analy standout’s length and height caused too many problems for Carter.

In the third-place match, Negri took on Buerger. The Maria Carrillo junior bombarded the net over and over again, attacking Buerger’s backhand to secure a 6-1, 6-2 victory — a big bounce back after the loss to Doughtie earlier in the day.

“I was just trying to play my game,” Negri said of his performances. “I think my first match was better, in terms of my hitting … I think I played the best that I could have. Not too much to be mad about.”

As for the champion, Doughtie is headed back to the North Coast Section championships. He will head to James Logan High School in Union City as part of the Division 1 bracket.

You can reach Staff Writer Kienan O’Doherty at 415-887-8650 or kienan.odoherty@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kodoherty22.