Tennis: McKennon wins twice at Junior Sectionals

Newport Beach resident Max McKennon won two titles at the 112th annual Southern California Junior Sectional Tennis Doubles Championships, completed Sunday at Los Caballeros Racquet & Sports Club in Fountain Valley.

McKennon and partner Charlotte Chavatipon of Fullerton captured the mixed 12 doubles title. They were top-seeded and defeated No. 2-seeded Jennifer Kida of Wilmington and Bruno Krenn of Bakersfield, 8-4, in the title match.

A couple of hours later, McKennon then won in boys’ 12 doubles with his partner Jinta Sasamori of Norwalk. The top seeds, McKennon and Sasamori outlasted No. 2-seeded Maximus Catabona of North Hills and Samuel Landau of Los Angeles, 7-5, 6-7 and 19-17 in a third-set super-tiebreaker.

McKennon also recently found out that he has made the main draw of next month’s prestigious Orange Bowl tournament in Florida, said his mother, Donna.

At Junior Sectionals, Newport Beach resident Austin Di Giulio made the finals of the boys’ 14 doubles draw with partner Jake Sands of Pacific Palisades. Di Giulio and Sands, the No. 3 seeds, fell to top-seeded Brandon Nakashima of San Diego and Govind Nanda of Redlands, 7-5, 6-1.

Newport Harbor High senior Reese Stalder and partner Riley Smith of Long Beach were top-seeded in boys’ 18 doubles. They made the quarterfinals before losing to No. 7-seeded Max Cressy of Hermosa Beach and Brandon Lam of Westlake Village, 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.

Stalder, bound for TCU, and Risa Nakagawa of Peninsula High were the top seeds in mixed 18 doubles. They also made the quarterfinals before losing to No. 6-seeded Claire Liu of Thousand Oaks and Bryce Pereira of San Gabriel, 8-5.

— Matt Szabo