Malibu High School freshman Gabriel Rapoport has taken the tennis world by storm this spring and his efforts last week at the Tri-Valley League tennis finals were inspiring to all who witnessed them.
The 14-year-old 5-foot, 7-inch southpaw played near perfect tennis as he advanced to the championship in singles play before falling to Oaks Christian’s Kevin Bondar 6-3, 4-6, 13-11. Rapoport had defeated Bondar in two previous matches during league play. In fact, Rapoport has lost only two head-to-head singles matches the entire season.
The championship match took place approximately 30 minutes after a grueling two-and-a-half hour semifinal match versus Mason Lewis of Oaks Christian in which Rapoport prevailed in a 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 12-10 match.
“It was unbelievable. A great match to watch,” his coach Bruce Young said.
In his tenth year at the helm of the Sharks, Young has seen talented players in Daniel Moss (Pepperdine), Skyler Davis (Drexel), Doug Stewart (Virginia) and Leif Sunderland (UCLA) pass through the tennis program. Now he has Rapoport to build his program around for the next three years.
“He is a real smooth player who strikes the ball very hard,” Young said. “He is one of the nicest players I have ever met. He has a good attitude and is a joy to have on the team.”
Rapoport led the Sharks to an overall record of 9-4 and 6-2 in league (second), including a great win over Simi Valley earlier in the season.
Now Rapoport has his sights set on the CIF Individuals, which begin in two weeks.
“That was my goal this year,” Rapoport said. “I want to play the best that I can play and hopefully get pretty far in the draw.”
Young feels that he will do just fine.
“He looks forward to tough tennis matches,” Young stated. “He will play as well as he possible can. He shows great maturity and composure. He strives to get better and he is conscious about improving in tennis.”
Rapoport will assist Young during the summer at youth camps as part of his community service hours. His experience at the high school level this season has been an invaluable one.
“As a freshman it’s been a shock. I’m not used to being the leader when there are people so much older than me,” Rapoport said. “This experience has been great for me. I think I’ve grown as a player and as a person having been in this situation.”
The Sharks will compete in the CIF Division III playoffs this week.