Michael Razumovsky had spent his first two years on the Pikesville tennis team playing doubles. He wanted to play singles and finally got his shot this year. It's fair to say that everything worked out pretty well. The junior rolled to a 17-0 record and gave Pikesville its first state champion.

He beat Dukyoung Park from Blair, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in the state final last weekend at College Park. Razumovsky also won the Baltimore County and District VI championships and came into the state tournament as the No. 2 seed. But everything went his way as Razumovsky won four matches in two days to claim the state title.

He was born in the Republic of Georgia (south of Russia, east of Turkey) and came to America at the age of four. Razumovsky started playing tennis at age six and, at one point, went to College Park four times a week to practice.

Question: Before the state tournament started, what did you think your chances were of winning?

Answer: I was pretty confident. I was supposed to play [Wootton's] Anton Kovrigin, who won counties in Montgomery County. But then we were at a national tournament in Florida, and he told me he wasn't playing states, so I got a little more confident. But I knew that the final would be really tough.

Q: How nervous were you coming into the states being undefeated? Did that affect you at all?

A: No, I was more nervous in the semis than in the finals because I just really wanted to get to the finals for the first year. I wasn't really nervous throughout the tournament because I knew I was capable of winning it.

Q: Since Pikesville didn't do as well this year, you kind of slipped under the radar a bit. Did that bother you at all?

A: I don't really mind getting too much notice, but this is really the first year that Pikesville hasn't been a dynasty, because I think it is 42 of [46] they won, county championships. I was the only one from Pikesville in the states [this year].

Q: How hard was it to control your nerves in the finals?

A: I wasn't really too nervous because me and Duk used to practice together at College Park last summer, and we played a bunch of times there. I knew I had to keep it to his backhand. If I just kept my strategy, kept being aggressive when it was needed, then I would come out winning.

Q: Did that help you in the finals, the fact that you practiced with him last summer?

A: Yes, because I can understand his game a lot more. His forehand and his serve probably are his biggest strengths because he can just hit shots that will astonish you. I mean, they'll just come out of nowhere blazing at 120 mph and you won't even see it. It's frustrating, but I know I have to get it to his backhand, keep the ball low, away from his strike zone, and that helped me.

Q: What was the feeling like when you won?

A: It was nice. It was kind of a relief because I won on my sixth match point. On my fifth match point, I missed a real easy overhead. Even my mom told me after the match that she thought it would have cost me the match. When it was 6-5 [in the tiebreaker], I hit a serve and then he just missed a return, so I was pretty relieved.

Q: Where do you go from here?

A: I think this is my last year for high school tennis. I'll try to stay as humble as possible, but honestly, instead of playing regular season I could be training and getting better. And instead of playing 20-minute matches where I win 6-0, 6-0 real quick, I could be training with kids who I usually practice with instead of kids who I beat really easily. You've got to get better yourself.

Q: What are you going to do to improve this summer?

A: I'm going to be going to camp every day. I'm going to try to get in the best shape of my life. I'll be traveling a lot playing national tournaments. At the end of June, I'm going to Florida, then the weekend after that, I have a tournament in Pennsylvania. Then, back in July, I may be going again to Florida. Then, if I made this tournament in August, I'll be going to Michigan.

Q. So I understand you know how to play the piano.

A: It kind of runs in my mom's side of the family. Her dad was a composer back in Georgia and she plays, so I started when I was six. I quit when I was 11 because I didn't really enjoy it and then I started again when I was 14.

Q: Do you ever play concerts?

A: Yes, the last concert I played was a year and a half ago, but tennis kind of prevents me from playing a lot of concerts because the last two times I was supposed to have a concert, I had a tournament the same day, so I wasn't able to make it. I play all classical musical — Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Beethoven. … I'd probably have to say that Chopin is my favorite.

Q: How is playing tennis like playing piano?

A: It's all in the head. If you think you're going to make a mistake, you're going to end up making a mistake, so you've just got to stay positive. I'm not going to lie — I love tennis more than I do piano. But both of them really calm me down because I'm not really the most calm person in the world. Those two things, they really calm me down. They're special for me.