Matthews gunning for victory against his seniors

Patrick Laverty

Fabian Matthews is playing in his second or third boys 16s junior

tennis tournament.

Don’t blame him for not knowing exactly. He’s just a 13-year-old

about to enter the eighth grade at Christ Lutheran School in Costa

Mesa. He has to have more pressing concerns on his mind.

One of those is trying to win the Costa Mesa Summer Junior Class.

After all, he is seeded second in the 16s, despite being as many as

three years younger than some of the players.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Matthews said. “If I’m the No. 2

seed, I can probably win this thing.”

He advanced to the third round Tuesday with an easy 6-0, 6-2

victory over Jonathan Ormont and his road to the finals got a bit

easier when third-seeded Ryan Caughren of Newport Beach was upset.

Like Matthews, Caughren is 13, but he will turn 14 in August and be a freshman this year at Corona del Mar High. Playing in his second

tournament in the 16s division, Caughren had already advanced to the

finals of last week’s War by the Shore at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet

Club as the No. 1 seed.

But he couldn’t advance to the third round Tuesday as he was

dominated by Alvaro Sanchez of Palm Desert, 6-0, 6-1.

What went so wrong?

“Everything,” Caughren said. “My serve just went out. And the kid

got so lucky. Seriously, I’d hit a perfect shot and he’d hit a winner

off it. I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Caughren struggled from the outset. He had already lost four games

before he had a game point and although he came up with three of them

in the fifth game, he couldn’t deliver the final blow.

After sweeping the first set, Sanchez won the first two games of

the second set, before Caughren won his first and only game.

“Everyone has their bad days,” Caughren said.

Tuesday wasn’t a bad day for Matthews, who disposed of Ormont in

quick fashion.

With the victory he advanced to the round of 16, where he will

face Sean Winbauer at 3 p.m. today at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Corona del Mar’s Jon Kroopf wasn’t as fortunate.

He broke serve to win the first game against Adam Perez, but then

lost the next four.

Trailing 4-1 in the set and 15-30 in the sixth game, Kroopf came

alive for three consecutive points to close to within 4-2. He had an

opportunity to win the next game as well, two game points in fact,

but couldn’t put Perez away.

Perez prevailed 6-3, 6-0.

The only other player from the Newport-Mesa area still alive in

the 16s singles was Corona del Mar’s Lance Ning. But he dropped out

of the competition with a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Travis McClellan.

That leaves Matthews as the lone local representative among the

remaining 16 players. All 16 players are tough, as evidenced by the

fact that none of those remaining even lost a set on Tuesday and the

most games any of them lost in a set was four.

But Matthews is a tough player in his own right, evidenced by his

No. 2 seeding. And no matter what his experience is, he thinks he can

win.