Jan Polivka’s five-year streak of men’s singles tennis championship titles came to an abrupt halt Monday.

A hastily-organized championship game following a series of rain delays pitted the long-time Tennis Yukon coach against former champ Justin Halowaty at the Mount McIntyre courts.

Halowaty came on late to beat Polivka 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 and finally snatch the men’s singles title from his grasp.

Polivka had won every title since his finals loss to Kyle Marchuk in 2008.

“He’s been dethroned finally,” the 39-year-old Halowaty told the Star this morning. “Definitely, people would have been rooting for me, because Jan’s won the past (five) years and it’s usually not too tough for him.

“He played really well in the first set ... he kept blowing the ball by me,” he said. “I fought hard early in the second set and my game and my serve came together.

“Then in the third set, it was kind of the opposite of the first set. I couldn’t seem to do anything wrong and he couldn’t seem to pull his game together. It was 4-0 real quick.”

Halowaty has only played in one Tennis Yukon playoff run in the past seven years.

“The tournament’s always usually when I’m out of town down south,” he explained. “He asked if I would play this year ... and I made it happen.”

Halowaty said his returns and net presence led him to victory.

“I just had to hold on until my game picked up a bit and his had to drop off somewhat. He couldn’t miss anything in the first set. He might have made one unforced error.”

Both Halowaty and Polivka went unbeaten through the men’s singles round robin, putting the two on a collision course in this week’s final.

While the title match was expected to take place in late August, rain pushed the matchup back by two weeks.

Polivka gave full credit to Halowaty on a hard-fought victory.

“He was playing really well,” the 33-year-old said. “In the first set, I didn’t give him many chances. And then second set, he started to play better ... and on the third set, he played really well and I kind of crashed.

“I wasn’t able to get it over the net.”

Halowaty’s net presence proved to overpower Polivka, who said he hasn’t lost a playoff game in a handful of years.

“I lost once five years ago here in Whitehorse,” Polivka said.

“Last year, I lost in the Capital Cup against one guy from Juneau.

“But I don’t play. This is my first loss this season, but I’ve only played five matches, including Capital Cup.”

Halowaty said he hopes to see Marchuk back competing in men’s singles sometime in the near future.

“When Kyle doesn’t play, it makes a difference,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to meet Jan in the final, but not everybody played.”

In other divisions, this year’s women’s singles champion was Aline Halliday, after she finished the round robin undefeated.

The women’s doubles category has also wrapped up with Anne Copland and Fleur Marsella winning the round robin event.

The duo finished tied with Nancy Hughes and Maya Reindlova, but earned the title thanks to their win in head-to-head action.

Only one title remains undecided for Tennis Yukon.

The mixed doubles championship is slated to occur sometime in the next week between partners Polivka and Copland and Marchuk and Vickie Roche.

“We are hoping for the weekend,” Polivka said.