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LEWISTON — Falmouth’s Luke Kusel and Eli Sidhu were never in any real danger throughout their first three matches of the state doubles tennis tournament.

The top-seeded duo found themselves in trouble twice Sunday afternoon, with the title on the line — and both times, they navigated their way through.

Kusel and Sidhu claimed a 7-5, 6-4 win over Brunswick’s Brendan Shaw and Evan Williams in the doubles state final at Bates College. The win came after the Falmouth duo came back from 5-4 down to win the first set, and 4-1 down to prevail in the second. It’s the second straight state title for Sidhu and Kusel.

“It feels great; we worked hard,” Kusel said. “We had to stay positive; we were down, and we were sort of getting negative on ourselves. They play differently than what we’re normally (familiar with), so we had to get used to that.”

Brunswick’s serving, particularly that of Williams, proved hard to break for Falmouth in the opening set. The serving team claimed each of the first 10 points of the set that seemed destined for a tiebreaker.

The 10th of those points saw Kusel and Sidhu — whose closest sets prior to the state final were 6-3 scores in the round of 16 and semifinals — tie the match 5-5. They then broke serve, after which they notched their third straight point to claim the set.

Shaw and Williams weren’t fazed by Falmouth’s surge in the second set, as they won three straight points after the teams split the first two. Yet once again, Kusel and Sidhu were able to break serve when needed, rattling off four straight points games to repeat as state doubles champions.

“We were finally able to break Evan’s serve, which was huge because his service points were sort of what were killing us,” Kusel said. “After that, we were able to win the points that we were supposed to.”

For Shaw and Williams, the loss ended a remarkable tournament run. To reach the final, the unseeded Brunswick duo knocked off third-seeded Blake McAteer and Ben Sidhu of Falmouth in Saturday’s quarterfinals and then No. 2 Yuta Sato and Albert Slanar of Thornton Academy earlier Sunday in the semis.

“This is our first year together, and it’s my first year playing altogether,” Shaw said. “We have great coaching, and we also have great teamwork and great chemistry. It’s been such a fun year.”

In defeat, the duo showed great resistance. Shaw and Williams won some remarkable points, including one in the third game of the second set in which Williams made a shot over his shoulder that found just enough space in the corner.

“It was a lot of fun; there were a lot of really good points,” said Williams, who made it to the doubles quarterfinals last year with Blake Belanger. “It was a great tournament. I had a tweener, which was awesome; I’ve never hit one of those in a match before.”

Falmouth duos have won all three boys state titles since the doubles tournament was reinstituted in 2024, after being discontinued after the 1980 competition.

Sidhu has been a part of three of all those tournament wins. In addition to winning with Kusel a year ago, the senior, who powered through sickness to prevail in Sunday’s match, also won the 2024 tournament alongside then-partner Charlie Wolak.

“It was a phenomenal matchup; they just have a great team,” Sidhu said. “(We just had to be able to) reset after every game. Each one starts at zero, so you just have to reset and go from there.”