Locals shine Down Under

Two Newport Beach tennis players have advanced in the Australian Open

junior tournament, a hardcourt competition that began Monday and runs

through Jan. 30 in hot and dry conditions at Melbourne Park National

Tennis Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

Corona del Mar High senior Carsten Ball, 17, defeated Serguei

Tarasevitch of Belarus in the round of 64 boys singles competition to

advance to the round of 32.

Alexa Glatch, a 15-year-old from Newport Beach who arrived in

Australia two weeks ago to begin preparing for the tournament,

defeated Angelique Kerber of Germany in the round of 64 girls singles

competition to advance.

Glatch, unseeded in the competition but ranked No. 29 in the

International Tennis Federation junior girls rankings, upset

third-seeded Kerber, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, on the tournament’s opening day

and will face Italy’s Sara Errani in the round of 32.

Ball, ranked No. 29 in the boys singles division, swept

Tarasevitch, 6-3, 6-4, improving his record in 2005 to 6-1.

The 2002 CIF Southern Section doubles champion along with Garrett

Snyder will play Chu-Huan YI, the eighth-ranked player in the ITF and

the tournament’s fifth seed, from Taiwan, in the round of 32.

Ball, who vaulted to the top of the United States Tennis

Association national boys 18s singles rankings in October, entered

the tournament on a high note after claiming his first title at this

level Jan. 12.

He ousted three seeded players in the final three rounds to claim

the boys singles championship of the Loy Yang Power ITF Victorian

junior championships in Traralgon, Victoria, Australia.

Ball defeated third-seeded Slovakian Pavol Cervenak, 6-3, 5-7,

6-4, in the quarterfinals before downing No. 2 seed Sergei Bubka of

Ukraine, 7-6(4), 6-4 in the semifinals.

The national high school All-American continued his run in the

final, with a 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory over Aussie Todd Ley.

Glatch won the girls 14s singles division of the prestigious

Easter Bowl championships in 2003.