City tennis semifinal features top two players

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Defending champion Katy Nikolova of Palisades will play Sarah Cohen of Taft in a semifinal of the City Section Individual singles tennis championships at 2 p.m. Friday at Balboa Sports Center, and the stage is set for an epic battle.

If the girls produce anywhere near the quality of tennis they did the last time they met, City officials should consider charging admission to the event next year.

And a note to anyone interested in driving to Encino to watch: Don’t make early dinner reservations. The seniors traded winners for more than 3 1/2 hours in the City team finals on Nov. 16 before Nikolova prevailed, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4).

Nikolova, who was celebrating her 18th birthday that day, was serving at 5-4, 40-love in the third set before Cohen reeled off five points in a row to break serve -- the 10th service break in 11 games -- and force a tiebreaker. Cohen fought off two more match points in the tiebreaker before finally succumbing. That time, Cohen was looking to avenge straight-set losses to Nikolova in last year’s team and Individual finals.

The two are developing quite a rivalry and although Cohen has lost in each of their three head-to-head matches, she has played Nikolova tougher each successive time. These are clearly the two best singles players in the City Section and have been for two years, so the obvious question is why are they meeting in the semifinals instead of the finals?

The answer: Because while Nikolova was deservedly seeded No. 1 in the 64-player draw, Cohen was inexplicably seeded fourth, meaning the two tournament favorites are on the same side of the draw. If you ask me, the seeding committee dropped the ball on that one. Whoever wins will meet either second-seeded Alexandra Tallas of Granada Hills or third-seeded Yuliya Maystruk of Taft in Monday’s final at the Balboa Sports Center.

-- Steve Galluzzo, guest blogger

-- Image from www.sport.ed.ac.uk