Liberty’s Anthony Ronca and Shayaan Farhad were crowned District XI Class 3A Doubles Tennis Champions after defeating Parkland’s Dan Zolatarev and Fyodor D’Souza, 5-7, 6-0, 6-3, last Wednesday at Parkland High School.

“We were both extremely happy,” Farhad said. “We kept texting each other the entire night.”

With only two days between the District XI Team Tennis championship and the District Doubles Tournament, Ronca and Farhad had little time to practice as a doubles pair. But Ronca pointed out that with his prior doubles experience and with the way Farhad works hard at whatever he does, the two were confident in their number one seeding. And although the Hurricanes dropped the first set after leading 5-1, neither was fazed by that loss.

“Everything was going easy, and then they just came on strong, but we knew it wasn’t going to last,” said Ronca.

Liberty coach Chris Conrad advised clear communication and continuous positivity.

“We came back to win six straight, and they didn’t get a game. The third set was the most competitive because all four of us knew it was all or nothing,” Ronca said.

Ronca and Farhad had the option of taking a break between the last two sets, ut neither wanted to accept; instead, wanting to keep their momentum going.

“My serve was really, really good through the entire tournament, and I was consistent from the baseline,” Farhad said. “Anthony was easily able to put away balls. He didn’t give [Parkland] a second chance, and toward the end, he was serving a few aces.”

Ronca and Farhad will now compete in the PIAA State Doubles Tennis Championships over Memorial Day weekend in Hershey where both players are looking forward to new competition and new scenery, again confident in their capability as a doubles team.