City Boys’ Tennis Finals : This Time, North Hollywood Is Outplayed by Palisades

Palisades won the City boys’ 4-A team tennis title Friday on the court, where they failed to win it last year, with a 5-2 victory over former 1984 champion North Hollywood at The Racquet Centre.

Former needs to be stressed, since North Hollywood won the 4-A title in 1984 by an identical 5-2 score over Palisades, then had the championship stripped in the fall after a protest by Palisades.

Palisades claimed that North Hollywood had violated City rules by juggling its lineup for a strategic advantage. The rules committee agreed, leaving the title vacant.

“Today we got beat on the court,” North Hollywood Coach Pete Bristol said, still bitter about being stripped of last year’s title.

This year’s title match left little for him to be bitter about, as the Dolphins (13-0) soundly defeated the Huskies, the would-be defending champions.

Palisades clinched the title early, winning four of the first five matches, including Jon Kahn’s 7-6, 6-3 win over Sung Jhun in a battle of the top singles players.

Jhun and his teammates were bitter about being stripped of the title, and it showed as Jhun flung his racket after losing and led his teammates in heckling Palisades Coach Bud Kling during the awards ceremony following the match.

“I didn’t want to play them because I wanted it to be a tennis match,” Kling said. “Maybe we will have a quiet year next year and one of us will lose and not have to play each other (in the final).

“But now that we’ve beaten them, it makes it a little sweeter.”

In the 3-A final, Eagle Rock rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat Marshall, 4-3.

Jung Suh of Eagle Rock (13-0) defeated Kenji Shintaku, 6-4, 6-7, 6-0, to tie the match at three and set up the doubles team of Rocky Domingo and Victor Maningo.

Domingo and Maningo, trailing 2-4 in the third set, won four straight games to win the set and the title with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Kirk Jue and John Ishihawa of Marshall (16-4).

“I never expected us to do as well as we did,” Eagle Rock Coach Hal Stepteau said. “I kept telling ‘em that they’re not that good but they wouldn’t listen.”