SOUTHERN SECTION INDIVIDUAL BOYS’ TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : Lindee, Abrams Breeze on Opening Day

Saturday’s Southern Section individual tennis regional at the Old Ranch Tennis Club in Seal Beach couldn’t have been more of a breeze for Loara’s Cameran Lindee and Newport Harbor’s Geoff Abrams, the Nos. 1 and 2 seeded players. Lindee dropped only three games in two matches and Abrams lost but two games in his two victories.

But Saturday was not nearly as fun for University’s Jason Meyers and Laguna Beach’s Julian Zajfen, who were losers of three-set matches that lasted nearly three hours.

Meyers, who received a first-round bye and then won his second match in straight sets, trailed Alex Sugai of North Torrance, 6-2, 5-1, in the third round. But he came back to win the set, 7-5, while fighting off two match points in the sixth and seventh games.

“I was uptight and he was taking more chances,” Sugai said. “I started to get a little nervous and he had all the momentum.”

Meyers kept it as he took a 4-3 lead in the third set, but Sugai, battling hand cramps, recovered to win the set in a tiebreaker, 7-1.

“I really wanted to finish the match,” Sugai said. “I was just hoping I didn’t fall apart.”

Zajfen, who also had a first-round bye, struggled but defeated Mike Burgess of Esperanza, 6-2, 6-4. In the third round, he led Sandy Gentile of Temple City, 6-2, 5-4. He had two match points in the 10th game before Gentile came back to win the second set in a tiebreaker, 7-4, and the third set, 6-1.

“I wish I could play those two points over again when I was up 5-4,” Zajfen said. “After the second set, I just slowed down and he picked it up. And that was that.”

Lindee, who reached the round of 16 for the third time in four years, appears poised to make a run at the singles title.

“I haven’t been playing that well lately, but in my last match (Saturday), I stayed really focused,” said Lindee, who beat Cameron Falck of Palos Verdes Chadwick, 6-0, 6-0, in 30 minutes.

When the CIF reseeds the final 16 players today, Lindee said he figures to be seeded first or possibly second to Santa Barbara’s Alex Decret.

Corona del Mar got a preview of Tuesday’s Division I quarterfinal match with Long Beach Wilson as the Sea Kings’ team of Jed Weinstein and Beat Baudenbacher defeated Wilson’s Somanith-Svay and James Rowe, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1. Corona’s top-seeded doubles team of Trenton Rhodes breezed into the quarterfinals by losing only four games in two matches.

Rhodes and Walden reached the finals in 1991 and the semifinals last year. But they vowed this year will be different.

“We’re definitely going to win,” Rhodes said. “It’s going to be real tough to beat us.”

Notes

Ocean View’s Jacob Pietrowski, Villa Park’s Jason Devera and Fountain Valley’s Eddie Weiss advanced to the semifinals with two singles victories at the University of Redlands. The Villa Park doubles team of Ryan Hollis and Chad Smith also advanced.