SOUTHERN SECTION INDIVIDUAL BOYS’ TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : Top Doubles Teams Take a Beating

Tim Mang knew he might be in for some trouble when he made out the Southern Section individual doubles draw. But he couldn’t have figured it would turn out this bad: after two rounds, all four seeded teams are history.

“This year in doubles, forget it,” said Mang, Corona del Mar’s tennis coach and a member of the seeding committee. “Just like at Ojai, anybody could beat anybody. We proved it right here.”

University’s Jason Meyers and Robbie Wilkins proved a No. 1 seeding doesn’t mean much as they easily upended Santa Barbara’s Jimmy Walker and Ian Carrera, 6-2, 6-2, in the quarterfinals Friday at Seacliff Tennis Club.

“These guys won Ojai, but they never played us,” Meyers said. “Seeding doesn’t mean anything. Who cares? They drew us, which is tough luck for them.”

Carpinteria Cate’s Jon Chang and Shep Smith, the second-seeded team, also had some tough luck when they drew San Clemente’s Daniel Roditi and Jeff Shoemaker in the first round. Roditi and Shoemaker are both coming off injuries, but they showed Friday they are quickly rounding into form. They beat Chang and Smith, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

They then took apart Diamond Bar’s Mark Yeh and Sangay Roy, 6-4, 6-2.

“I saw the seeds and I knew that once we got past the first round, it’d be easier in the second round,” said Roditi, who won the tournament two years ago with Jeff Marsden. “I was kind of surprised when the seedings came out. I don’t know who does them, but so much for the seedings.”

Roditi and Shoemaker will play Corona del Mar’s unseeded team of Jed Weinstein and Tyler Stonebreaker, who upset Dos Pueblos’ third-seeded team of Omar Atesman and Bryan Golledge, 6-1, 6-4, in this morning’s 10:30 semifinal.

Meyers and Wilkins will play Corona’s Darren Auld and Dave Robles, who knocked out fourth-seeded Bryan Johnson and Nolan Cooper of Trabuco Hills, in the other semifinal.

As crazy as the doubles draw went, the singles draw was rather predictable. All four seeded players are still alive and none had any serious problems.

Top-seeded Nathan Jackmon of Santa Barbara will play fourth-seeded Sandy Gentile of Temple City in one semifinal and third-seeded Geoff Abrams of Newport Harbor plays Jakub Pietrowski of Ocean View in the other.

Jackmon struggled briefly with Sunny Hills’ Joseph Gilbert before winning, 7-5, 6-0.

Gilbert trailed 5-2 before breaking Jackmon twice and tying the game score, 5-5. But Jackmon held his serve and finished out the set.

“I really thought I had a put away at 30-30, but he got that lob on me and then another one,” Gilbert said. “I was sort of thinking about that first set during the second set. I was kind of down. I should have just forgotten about it.”

Pietrowski, who reached the semifinals last year, had the easiest time of the seeded players by losing only 10 games in four sets. Villa Park’s Ryan Hollis was Pietrowski’s first victim.

“He’s the one person I didn’t want,” Hollis said. “It’s so unfortunate. I was playing so well. He’s so fast and he gets to everything. He has no flaws in his game. I’d put my money on him to win.”