Patterson of Burroughs High falls in second round of CIF tennis individuals
Burroughs High boys’ tennis player Sawyer Patterson had experience playing in the CIF Southern Section Individual Tournament.
As a sophomore a year ago, Patterson, riding a Pacific League singles championship run, took part in his first CIF tournament and did well, advancing to the third round and just missing qualifying for the second day of the competition.
Again this season, the junior entered Thursday’s tournament at Whittier Narrows Tennis Center in South El Monte and advanced to take on some of the top players in Southern California after winning his second straight league title. However, this time around Patterson couldn’t equal his previous success in CIF, falling in the second round.
It was the first loss of the season for Patterson.
“It was tough because he had a bad draw,” Burroughs Coach Roy Bernhardt said. “It wasn’t a very good draw at all. He didn’t even get a bye in the first round and some of the other guys did.”
Patterson began the day with a relatively easy victory, as he had little trouble disposing of senior Tommy Tin of Rosemead out of the Mission Valley League, 6-0, 6-0.
“He just really breezed through that first one and the guy he was playing was really overmatched,” Bernhardt said. “Sawyer kind of blew him off of the court.”
But in the second round, Patterson ran into an accomplished player in junior Sam Kang from Warren. Kang is the two-time defending singles champion of the San Gabriel Valley League. Patterson played well at times during the match, but lost in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5.
“It was a good match, but Sawyer was not a happy camper after he lost that one,” Bernhardt said. “But the guy he was playing against was good. He had great passing shots, he hit good cross-court shots down the line and handled Sawyer’s serve quite well.
“Sawyer was able to battle back from a couple of match-points until he finally lost.”
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