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Ryan Ybarra pinpointed a weakness in the game of Isamu Tachibana, then exploited it by driving repeated shots to Tachibana's backhand.
But the Rice-bound Tachibana, who would end up working at a 45-degree angle against the tennis court as he ran around backhands, simply emphasized his strengths.
Tachibana used a blistering forehand and a powerful serve to defeat Ybarra and capture the Texas Summer Grand Slam boys 18 singles championship with a 7-6, 6-1 victory at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
Tachibana lost just one set in the tournament, coming back from a first-set loss in the round of 32 and winning the last 10 sets he played to clinch the championship.
Tachibana broke Ybarra's serve on the first game of the match, but Ybarra battled back, keeping Tachibana on the run with drives to the backhand side. Ybarra, from Palestine, used several of his deep drives as approach shots, which he finished off impressively. Ybarra hit a running volley to set up a game win and a 4-3 lead.
"In the first set, he really attacked my backhand," Tachibana said. "I think his backhand has improved a lot since the last time I played him.
The competitive first set needed a tiebreaker. Tachibana jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first-set tiebreaker, and won it 7-4
Tachibana, who was born in Japan and grew up in Austin, has been training and living at the John Newcombe Tennis Academy in New Braunfels in the past year.
Tachibana had two double faults that cost him his only game of the second set, but he closed out the match with back-to-back service aces. He had six aces overall.
"After that first set, I just had to get away from hitting to his backhand and went up the line more," Tachibana said. Then he added, with a laugh, "his forehand is good, too.
"In the entire tournament, my serve helped me. I'm really happy, because I've been working on my serves."
In the boys 18 consolation final, Benjamin Chen fell behind 5-2 but rallied to win the second set in a tiebreaker and completed a 6-4, 7-6 win over Laredo's Bryan Welnetz.
Chen broke Welnetz's serve in the final game of the first set to win it, the only service break in the set. Chen survived several challenges by Welnetz, who took Chen to deuce in three straight games but couldn't break through.
In a third-place match, Dallas' David Holiner defeated Abilene's Nathan Robinson 6-1, 6-4.
• David Campbell's e-mail address is david.campbell@theeagle.com.
