By Andy Walter

CAMDEN — On paper, it was a really heart-breaking loss.

Playing for the DIAA second-singles tennis state title, Darin Jawahar was leading 5-0 in the deciding third set. He was just one point from taking the title.

But then disaster struck for the Caesar Rodney High freshman. His right leg cramped up, leaving him pretty much unable to run.

By the time the dust settled, Tatnall’s Seth Friendlander had won seven straight games to take the match — and the state crown — 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

Two years later, though, Jawahar just shrugs off the loss.

“I still played, so I wasn’t too upset about it,” said the CR junior. “I was glad to be there in the finals. I think it was a pretty big deal, especially since I was a freshman.”

Now Jawahar is one win away from getting another shot at a state title.

On a cool, drizzly Monday afternoon, the top-seeded Jawahar dispatched No. 6 Liam Bevard of Salesianum, 6-2, 6-1, to reach the second-singles semifinals.

Those semifinals won’t be played until Wednesday after the entire girls’ bracket and the boys’ second doubles were rained out on Monday. Those matches will be played today with the finals now slated for Thursday afternoon at St. Andrews.

With both the boys’ first and second singles players completing their quarterfinal matches on Monday at CR, Jawahar was the only Henlopen Conference player to advance.

At first singles, Wilmington Charter’s Ben Chen downed the Riders’ Jhayden Pappas, 6-4, 6-4, while Middletown’s Collin Bowers topped Smyrna’s Stefan Savich, 6-0, 6-0.

At second singles, Newark Charter’s Hari Ramesh rallied to down Milford’s Jacob Muir, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

CR has at least three entries in the boys’ semifinals: Jawahar, Mike Sell (third singles) and the first-doubles team of Ramon Manjon and Troy Boehne. The second-doubles team of Caleb Anthony-Gilbert Hoffman plays their quarterfinal match today.

That state-final loss in 2019 is still the only setback of Jawahar’s high school career. He’s 31-1 overall in two seasons.

The strength of Jawahar’s game is his ability to keep returning the ball. But he thinks there’s more to his game than that.

“Keeping the ball in play for me is all that matters,” he said. “A lot of people call me a ‘pusher’ but I don’t really consider myself one. I do try with every ball that I hit.”

Jawahar, who has played the game since he was little, did take some time away from tennis in the fall and winter. Being a junior, he wanted to focus more on academics.

But the time away hasn’t seemed to hurt his game.

“My game definitely changed a bit but I think it’s back to normal — if not better — than it was two years ago,” said Jawahar, who has two sisters that played tennis for Dover.

As the top seed, Jawahar is the favorite to win the state title this time. But he said he doesn’t look at the situation that way.

“I always know there’s going to be someone who’s going to be able to compete with me — specially because it’s states,” he said. “I’ve never seen someone win states easily. I’m seeing a lot of new players here.

“My freshman year, I was more familiar with the players and heard a lot about them. But, because of the pandemic, there’s a lot of underclassmen that have come up.”

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at 741-8227 or walter@newszap.com