Boys’ tennis: City individual champions to be determined Monday

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

No, the spring sports season isn’t quite over. There’s still some business to be taken care of on the court. The tennis court, that is.

Taft junior Josh Tchan will try to win his first City Section individual singles title when he takes on Sherman Oakes CES freshman Dennis Mrktchian in the final at 2 p.m. Monday at Balboa Sports Center in Encino. The top-seeded Tchan beat Dennis’ older brother Ken in the semifinals, 7-5, 6-4, Wednesday.

A victory would give Tchan a sweep of the section’s team and individual titles. He won all four of his sets as the Toreadors edged Palisades, 15-14/1/2, for their second consecutive team title May 9. But he has yet to win the individual championship, bowing out in the semifinals last year with a heel injury.

The Mrktchians were attempting to become the first teammates to square off in the final of the singles tournament since Palisades’ Danny Westerman and Artin Tafazoli in 1997. Dennis, seeded third, ousted North Hollywood’s Dillon Klincke in the semifinals. Klincke upset defending champion and second-seeded J.R. Sarmiento of Carson in the quarterfinals.

The doubles draw has broken down the same way, with top-seeded Andrew Sarawasi and Sammy Macias of Carson taking on third-seeded Jeremy Shore and Matt Goodman of team runner-up Palisades. Shore and Goodman upset second-seeded Alex Freeman and Aaron Teitelbaum, 7-6 (2), 6-3, in the semifinals -- dealing the Taft duo its first loss of the season. Meanwhile, Sarawasi and Macias ousted fourth-seeded Ren Nielsen and Kyung Choi of Palisades.

-- Steve Galluzzo