CdM’s Hoffmann in semis

SEAL BEACH — Corona del Mar High senior Bjorn Hoffmann had to have a short memory to continue on in the CIF Southern Section Individual Boys’ Tennis Championships Friday afternoon.

Hoffmann, who is headed to Cal, faced Yale-bound San Marino senior Ryan Cheng in the quarterfinals at Seal Beach Tennis Center. Not only was Cheng the No. 4 seed, but he had beaten Hoffmann, 6-3, when the Sea Kings and Titans played in a CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoff semifinal match last month.

“I kind of just dismissed that whole San Marino match because of how poorly I thought I played,” said Hoffmann, who lost twice that day. “I haven’t played that bad in a long time, so I just was like, ‘I’m not going to play that bad again.’ I’m playing well now. I’m just going to do my thing.”

Hoffmann played well Friday, earning a 6-4, 6-0 win over Cheng this time to advance to Saturday’s CIF Individual singles semifinals. A couple of other local players weren’t as fortunate.

Fairmont Prep senior Max Pham, a Newport Coast resident, almost got there too. But he was edged by second-seeded Peninsula junior Connor Hance, 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 7-5, in the quarterfinals. CdM senior Pedro Fernandez del Valle lost to Alex Kuperstein of Palm Desert, 7-5, 6-1, in the round of 16.

Hoffmann will play top-seeded Los Alamitos senior Riley Smith on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. back at Seal Beach Tennis Center in one semifinal. Hance will play Kuperstein in the other. The championship match will follow.

Hoffmann, the Pacific Coast League singles champion, has already gotten a round further than he did last year, when lost in the quarterfinals. His draw was challenging Friday, as he played UCLA-bound Palm Desert senior Connor Rapp in the round of 16. Rapp was a singles semifinalist in this tournament last year, but Hoffmann didn’t have too many problems in a 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Cheng took the early lead, though, in the quarterfinal match. The lefty broke Hoffmann’s serve in the fifth game of the match to take a 3-2 lead. But Hoffmann immediately broke back, then broke again as Cheng was serving to stay in the match.

“I think we both came out and were playing quick points,” Hoffmann said. “The points weren’t lasting very long, so it was hard for either of us to get a little bit of rhythm. I just tried to tell myself to dig deep on those return games, make him play more balls and get my returns a little bit different. I thought I made more returns in those couple of games. He played a couple of loose points and I played a couple of good points, and that was the difference. From there, I think I got a little more confidence and settled in a little bit more.”

The second set went quick, as Hoffmann hit a standout cross-court forehand passing shot with a lot of topspin to earn a break and 2-0 lead. He would end up winning the next four games, too, to close out the set.

The reward is a showdown against the USC-bound Smith of Los Al, who also beat Hoffmann when the teams played a nonleague match earlier this season. The players are plenty familiar, as they also practice together.

“We always do battle and it’s always a pretty long match,” Hoffmann said. “I kind of expect a tough match. It’s a little bit exhausting playing Riley, because you’re always trying to figure out how to break him. But yeah, I feel like I’m playing well so I’m confident in general.”

Hoffmann is vying to become the fifth CdM singles player to win the CIF Individuals title, the first since Fabian Matthews in 2008.

Pham, who will play at UC Davis next year, nearly upset Hance. After losing the first set, he saved two set points in the second-set tiebreaker to even the match.

Hance earned two breaks of serve early in the third set, before he held in a long service game for a 4-0 advantage. Pham, though, somehow came back and won five straight games for a 5-4 lead.

“I was telling myself, if I get this [3-0] game, I’m going to get back into the match, and then I lost that game,” Pham said. “But I held serve after that, and had a solid 4-1 break and that kind of changed things. It might have gotten into his head a little bit, once I started inching closer, once it got to 3-4.”

But Pham developed a bloody nose while Hance was serving to stay in the match. The Peninsula junior rallied, taking the next three games to earn the win.

It was still a good day for Pham, who outlasted Charles Deng of Arcadia, 6-4, 6-4, in his round of 16 match earlier Friday.

“We both played pretty physical tennis,” he said of his battle against Hance, which ended at about 6:20 p.m., well after all of the rest of Friday’s matches had concluded. “The third set, I started a little slow, and I was able to pick it back up to 5-4. Yeah, it was definitely a solid match on both ends. We both fought hard.”

Fernandez del Valle also fought hard against Kuperstein, but was unable to hold a 4-1 lead in the first set.

“I just lost it, I guess,” Fernandez del Valle said. “I went a bit out of the game. I changed my strategy, and obviously it did not work. I was trying to end the points too quickly, and sometimes that happens in tennis. You can be up, feeling well, and then suddenly you’re on the other side of the scoreboard. I think it was not my best tennis today.”

Still, he was able to reflect on a successful senior season as co-captain for CdM, along with Hoffmann. Fernandez del Valle will play at the University of Denver next year.

“Overall, I go out of here with a great experience,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the next stage of my life, which is college at Denver. It’s a hard loss, it hurts, but you’ve just got to keep moving forward and that’s what I’m going to do.”