CdM blanks Granada Hills
On Monday afternoon, Corona del Mar High freshman Kyle Pham rallied for a big victory in junior tennis.
Pham defeated Costa Mesa resident Jacob Holiday, 4-6, 6-4 and 10-6 in a super-tiebreaker, to win the Match Point Spring Junior Open tournament. He was playing up in the boys’ 18s.
Less than 24 hours later, Pham was back on the CdM tennis courts in the high school tennis realm. He was at his familiar position of No. 3 singles as the Sea Kings did battle with Granada Hills in the first round of the CIF USTA Southern California Regional Boys’ Tennis Championships.
There was no similar suspense for the Sea Kings on Tuesday. They blanked Granada Hills, 7-0, to advance to the SoCal Regional quarterfinals.
No. 7-seeded Corona del Mar will play No. 2 Torrey Pines in a quarterfinal match Friday at 11 a.m. at The Claremont Club. Should the Sea Kings win, a regional semifinal against either No. 3 San Marino or No. 11 Palm Desert would follow.
The Sea Kings, who lost to San Marino, 11-7, in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinals last week, were happy to get a chance to keep playing. CdM made the SoCal Regionals for the first time in three years.
“The season’s been really fun,” Pham said. “It’s really nice to keep going. A lot of the other teams are already done.”
There was relatively little suspense against Granada Hills, the Los Angeles City Section Division 1 runner-up, in the unique format that features four singles sets and three doubles sets. Each matchup is best two-of-three sets.
“The guys are excited that the season rolls on,” CdM Coach Jamie Gresh said. “It’s kind of a cool format, You have to be a little deeper, because you start 10 guys, not nine.”
The closest and longest match was at No. 1 singles, where CdM senior Bjorn Hoffmann was battling Granada Hills junior Ryan Nuno. The talented Nuno captured his second City Section Individuals singles title this season.
Hoffmann outlasted Nuno, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5. Nuno rallied after falling behind 5-2 in the first set and 4-1 in the second set, but Hoffmann was able to close it out.
It got interesting late, however, as Hoffmann was short of breath after his mom Biljana said he was dealing with an asthma attack. He used an inhaler on late changeovers, but was able to serve out the match.
After the match Hoffmann laid on a bench near the No. 1 singles court as he was examined by the father of fellow CdM senior Oliver Kim, who is a doctor. Hoffmann then slowly walked away from the tennis courts. He was scheduled to attend the National High School Tennis All-American dinner later Tuesday, as Hoffmann is a high school All-American for the second straight year.
The other sets were fairly straightforward. CdM senior Pedro Fernandez del Valle beat Granada Hills’ Daniel Lin, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 2 singles, and Pham earned a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles over the Highlanders’ Sebastian Prokic. CdM’s Ryan Wessler defeated Brian Bonilla, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 4 singles.
CdM sophomore Diego Fernandez del Valle had been battling sickness the last couple of days, but he and partner Jacob Cooper earned a 6-2, 6-0 win over Sebastian Koh and Brandon Perera at No. 1 doubles. CdM’s Kim and Grant Brown beat Granada Hills’ Andrew Kimelman and Daniel Kim, 6-2, 6-0 at No. 2 doubles, while Matt Paulsen and John Hart defeated the Highlanders’ Shaan Londhe and Sam Blumkin, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 3 doubles.
The Sea Kings expect Torrey Pines to be much tougher. Torrey Pines, led by junior Jacob Brumm, has won the CdM All-American Tournament each of the last two years. But CdM also expects to show up in Claremont ready to play.
“We’ve been playing tough competition all year,” Gresh said. “We played teams like [Division 1 champion] Peninsula, [Division 1 finalist] San Marino, and Uni twice, so we’re ready to play against a good-quality team. In this format, we’ll see what happens.”
Hoffmann and Pedro Fernandez del Valle, who were the top two finishers at the Pacific Coast League singles tournament, will also play in the initial rounds of CIF Individuals on Thursday at Jack Kramer Tennis Club in Rolling Hills Estates.
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Twitter: @mjszabo
