CdM’s Ball shines as SoCal wins Davis Cup

Corona del Mar High’s Carsten Ball and Newport Beach resident Kaes

Van’t Hof each won their singles matches in straight sets, helping

top-seeded Southern California defeat Texas, 6-1, for the Wachovia

Junior Davis Cup tennis championship Tuesday at the Sam Daniel Tennis

Center on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia,

S.C.

Ball, who will be a CdM senior this fall, defeated Ashwin Kumar,

7-5, 6-3, while Van’t Hof, who will attend USC after starring at

Mater Dei, downed Andrew Roth, 6-2, 6-4, to help Southern California

tie Southern for the most Junior Davis Cup titles with seven in the

tournament’s 22-year history.

Ball went 2-0 in singles in Southern California’s four matches,

winning his prior match in straight sets over Northern California in

the quarterfinals Sunday.

Southern California, which went 4-0 in the championship, swept all

five singles matches Tuesday to stake a 5-0 lead.

Four of the five singles matches went the minimum two sets. With a

3-0 lead, Santa Barbara High’s Blake Muller sealed Southern

California’s victory with a 7-6, 6-4 victory at No. 5 singles.

The two teams split two doubles matches, with Van’t Hof teaming

with Lee Singer for a 9-8 tiebreaker victory over Chang Wang and

Kumar.

The Junior Davis Cup features 100 of the top boys 18s singles

players representing teams from each of the United States Tennis

Association’s 17 sections.

Van’t Hof and Ball are ranked Nos. 5 and 6, respectively, in the

USTA boys 18s.