Furuta Wins Girls’ Tennis Title

Canna Furuta holds a black belt in karate, but lately, she has been getting a bigger kick out of tennis.

The Granada Hills senior overcame high winds, a tentative start and North Hollywood sophomore Desiree Stone to claim the City Section singles title with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in the championship match Monday at Balboa Sports Complex in Encino.

Furuta’s victory came three weeks after she led Granada Hills to its second consecutive City team championship and was the first leg in a two-part sweep by the Highlanders in the individual tournament.

Granada Hills junior Alex Margolin and sophomore Roxanne Plata won the section doubles title Monday with a 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory over the Palisades team of sophomores Krista Slocum and Yasmir Navas.

“This was one of our goals,” said Furuta, who will play at Cal State Northridge next season. “High school-wise, I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to. I wanted to leave high school with a title, and to top off the season like this, what more can you ask for?”

Furuta, 17, used effective ground strokes, along with patience and determination developed over years of training in karate, to play through swirling winds even after her serve was broken to open the match.

“I haven’t been going [to karate] too much lately because I’ve been focusing on this,” Furuta said. “With tennis over, I’ll probably start going more now. It gives me a discipline so that I’m into the game and I’m focused and just thinking about the match.”

-- Lauren Peterson

Teams from seven states will join eight City Section schools in the inaugural Los Angeles City Classic boys’ basketball tournament that begins Wednesday at Los Angeles Fremont.

Pool play in the 15-team tournament will begin with six games Wednesday and Thursday beginning at 12:30 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Among the out-of-state schools playing are Memphis (Tenn.) Hamilton, Denver East, Baton Rouge (La.) South Lab, Austin (Texas) L.B. Johnson, Birmingham (Ala.) West End, Las Vegas Cheyenne and national power Washington Dunbar.

City Section schools participating are host Fremont, L.A. King-Drew, Venice, South Gate, Gardena, L.A. Washington, L.A. Dorsey and L.A. Jordan.

-- Eric Stephens