Boys tennis: CdM duo of Morton and Snyder advance to CIF semifinals

HUNTINGTON BEACH - While Corona del Mar High junior Cameron Ball

played through some adversity and lost, the Sea King duo of Brian Morton

and Garrett Snyder practically coasted in Friday’s quarterfilnals in the

CIF individual tournament at SeaCliff Country Club.

Morton and Snyder, the senior/sophomore tandem, will face Damien’s

Emil and Tom Novack in a doubles semifinal today, also at SeaCliff, at

10:30 a.m.

Ball, who has a 40-4 record in singles played in dual team matches

this season, lost to Crespi’s Steven Amritraj, 2-6, 4-6, as Ball battled

a surprise attack from the outset.

Amritraj’s father, Anon who is not a certified high school coach,

filled in as his son’s coach and gave pointers while sitting courtside.

“He used to be one of the top players in the world,” CdM Coach Tim

Mang said of Anon Amritraj. “And he’s sitting there talking to his kid

and coaching him. (Ball) was having a hard time focusing. That threw him

off quite a bit. By the time he regained focus, it was too late.”

Mang also said he discussed with on-site CIF officials, reminding them

of rules, including coaches can only advise players in between games and

only high school coaches are allowed to coach.

Crespi’s principal sent a letter to the CIF office requesting that

Anon Amritraj fill in for Crespi’s absent coach, according to Mang.

“I’m not really happy about that,” said Mang. “If he’s going to coach,

let us all know ahead of time. Don’t surprise us with this stuff.”

Meanwhile, Morton and Snyder won their first match by default. Santa

Barbara’s Kevin Yardy and Chase Mueller were no-shows, choosing to attend

their prom instead.

Said Mang, “I guess they didn’t want to drive down all the way from

Santa Barbara and lose to the No. 1-seeded team.”

Morton and Snyder advance to today’s semifinal when they defeated

Orrin Franko and Andrew Cohen, of Peninsula, 6-2, 6-4, as the Sea Kings

need but minor improvements, Mang said.

“They’re both pretty tough,” Mang said of the CdM duo. “When they’re

on, they’re going to be the best. It’s just a matter of being on the

whole time to win the whole thing.”

The Novacks, the No. 4 seed, scored an upset of sorts over Brentwood’s

Chris Dennis and Ari Rosenthal, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to reach today’s semifinal

with CdM. The winner of the match will play the winner of Thousand Oaks

(Phillip Chang and Andrew Liu) vs. Mira Costa (K.C. Corkery and Ryan

Pfeifle).