Crescenta Valley doubles team, singles player advance to league tennis semifinals
PASADENA — After breezing through their respective first-round matches at the Pacific League Tournament on Monday, the second round proved to be anything but a cinch for a trio of Crescenta Valley High boys’ tennis players.
Singles player Jonathan Frink and the doubles team of Kevin Rowe and Charlie Kim had to rally late to keep their league championship aspirations alive.
The Falcons survived exhausting second-round sets at Pasadena High to advance to the semifinals, which will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the same location.
“They really had to work hard in their seconds rounds,” said Crescenta Valley Coach Sam Hyun, whose team finished second in league behind Arcadia. “Jonathan seems to be famous in coming from behind to win and he had to fight right through the end. He did it diligently and I’m glad to see him get to the semifinals.
“Kevin and Charlie didn’t have much trouble in the first round. In the second round, they got off to a tough start and then they found a way to rally.”
The third-seeded Frink opened with a 6-1, 6-0 win against 14th-seeded Arsh Zahed of Burbank before picking up a 3-6, 6-0, 10-3 second-round victory against sixth-seeded Kendrick Marcy of Burroughs. Third-seeded Rowe and Kim started off with a 6-0, 6-2 win versus 14th-seeded Alejandro Ramos and Emory Kim of Burbank and then registered a 5-7, 6-2, 10-3 win against sixth-seeded John Hoang and Peter Vu of Burroughs.
Frink will meet second-seeded Jonathan Figueira of Arcadia in a semifinal match. Top-seeded Charles Deng of Arcadia will face fourth-seeded Kevin Orellana of Burbank in the other semifinal.
Rowe and Kim will take on second-seeded Jun Nakmine and Nicholas Figueira of Arcadia and top-seeded Brian Kim and Sunham Dikhit of Arcadia will meet fifth-seeded Kevin Yang and Jimmy Liu of Arcadia. The finals will follow shortly after.
Elsewhere in singles, fifth-seeded Erik Kim of Crescenta Valley posted a 6-1, 6-2 win against Haze Martin of Burroughs. Kim lost to Orellana, 6-3, 7-6 (10-3), in the second round. Eighth-seeded Edward Ahn of Crescenta Valley notched a 6-1, 6-2 first-round win against ninth-seeded Diego Matibag of Hoover before suffering a 6-0, 6-0 defeat against Deng. Seventh-seeded Nalitha Liyanage of Pasadena earned a 6-3, 5-7, 14-12 first-round win against 10th-seeded Joseph Louie of Glendale. Orellana posted a 6-1, 6-0 first-round win against 13th-seeded Cecilio Perez of Crescenta Valley.
In doubles action, fourth-seeded Arby Avenesian and Darren Kim of Crescenta Valley began with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win against 13th-seeded Daron Truong and Miguel Saldana of Pasadena. Their run ended with a 6-0, 6-0 defeat against Yang and Liu.
Eighth-seeded Mark Belosludtsev and Anton Belosludtsev of Hoover played an entertaining first-round match against ninth-seeded Steven Zhang and Kiet Hoang of Burroughs. Ultimately, Zhang and Hoang rallied for a 2-6, 7-5, 10-8 win.
“They are just juniors, so it’s a good experience for them,” Hoover Coach Yeprem Chavdarian said. “In the first set, Mark and Anton came out strong and then Burroughs came back hard in the second set. They just came up a little short in the end.
“They were able to get more experience and they now have a much better idea of what to expect going forward.”
Tenth-seeded Amos Ro and Jun Moon of Crescenta Valley fell, 6-1, 6-4, to seventh-seeded James Lee and Luciano Dapuetto of Burbank in the first round. Also, 11th-seeded Melvin Issael and Michael Tufenkchian of Glendale dropped a 6-1, 6-3 first-round match against Hoang and Vu.
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Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
