PREP TENNIS : DeVeras Brothers Win City Championship in Doubles

Brothers Rene and Roel DeVera of Carson High have been playing tennis together for the past four years, but never on the same side of the court.

The DeVeras say they are good friends but argue too much during matches to be an effective doubles team.

There was no arguing Wednesday as they breezed to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Derek Halpern and Andy Kimelman of Woodland Hills Taft for the City Section doubles title.

Playing before family and friends at the Universal Racquet Centre in Studio City, they exchanged plenty of high-fives and looked like a veteran doubles team.

“Every time we’ve thought about playing doubles before we decided against it because we don’t get along when we’re on the same team,” said Rene, a sophomore.

Said Roel, a junior: “We get very frustrated when we practice because we expect so much out of each other. But this was great today. Maybe we’ll try it again sometime.”

This doubles title, however, will probably be the last for the brothers because each plans to concentrate on singles play next season. Roel, 17, was the No. 1 singles player at Carson this past season, and Rene, 15, competed at No. 2 singles.

The DeVeras, who were born in the Philippines and raised in Southern California, started playing tennis at a local park in 1987. Now they play year-round and have established themselves as two of the City’s better players.

They were the top-seeded team in the tournament, despite never having played doubles together before, and did not lose a set in four matches, dropping only 15 games.

In the third-place doubles match, Aaron Polk and Omar Yassin of Westchester defeated Robert Polak and Eric Finkman of Taft, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

In the singles championship, unseeded Dragan Jovanovski of North Hollywood beat third-seeded Paul Knizek of North Hollywood Grant, 6-3, 6-3.

Jovanovski, who moved from Yugoslavia two years ago, and Knizek, a native of Czechoslovakia, are friends off the court. Despite playing with a sore right shin that hampered his play at the net, Jovanovski said he was satisfied with the match.

Marc Simon of Grant won the third-place singles match by default because Banning’s Robert Johnson was a no-show.