TENNIS / EASTER BOWL TOURNAMENT : Fullerton’s Gilbert Still Cannot Shake the Bryan Jinx

For a while, it looked as if the jinx might finally come to an end. Joseph Gilbert of Fullerton recovered from a 5-2 deficit in the first set to force a tiebreaker and gain a set point on Camarillo’s Bob Bryan, whom Gilbert had never beaten.

But Bryan remained steady, beating Gilbert, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, Wednesday in the round of 16 of the boys’ 18 division of the Easter Bowl Junior Tennis Tournament at Riviera Resort and Racquet Club.

“It’s getting closer,” said Gilbert, who has beaten Bryan’s brother, Mike, who also was in the round of 16. “I had it. Nobody can say he outclassed me. It came down to one or two points. If he’s the best the nation’s got, I’m not too far behind. But he’s a great player.”

Bryan wasn’t great, but he was consistent. He made few unforced errors and usually let Gilbert win the point or make the mistake. Gilbert made his biggest mistake at 7-7 in the tiebreaker when he missed an easy volley wide with an open court to his left.

“I think I went for too much there,” Gilbert said. “I thought he’d go to the other side.”

From there, Bryan closed out the first set and broke Gilbert’s serve twice in the second set to finish the match.

“He’s not the most overpowering player, but he’s real intelligent,” Gilbert said. “If you beat a player like that, you know you beat them and they didn’t give it to you.”

Kevin Kim, Gilbert’s teammate on two Southern Section championships teams at Sunny Hills, came up with big shots on big points to get past Nick Cromwell of Amarillo, Tex., 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), in another round of 16 match. Kim’s serve was erratic throughout the 90-minute match, but it came alive when he needed it most--in the tiebreaker. Trailing, 4-1, in the tiebreaker, the second-seeded Kim served an ace and then a nearly unhittable kick serve to close to 4-3. After splitting the next two points, Kim hit two baseline winners and then a low backhand return at Cromwell’s feet to win the match.

He meets sixth-seeded Kelly Gullett of Whittier in today’s quarterfinals at 3:30 p.m.

Ryan Moore of Fullerton never had a chance against top-seeded Rodolfo Rake of Ft. Lauderdale, losing, 6-1, 6-0, in less than an hour in the boys’ 16 round of 16.

“He doesn’t miss a ball,” said Moore, a freshman at Servite High. “I’d hit out, but he got to every ball. Everybody says he’s just a clay courter, but he looked like he was pretty good on hardcourts too.”

In the boys’ 14s, Westminster’s Cody Jackson upset his second consecutive seeded opponent, Travis Rettenmaier of Camarillo, to reach the semifinals. Jackson beat Rettenmaier, 6-4, 6-4, and will play top-seeded Dustin Friedman of Owings Mills, Md., at 2:30 p.m.

In the girls’ 16 consolation bracket, Faye DeVera of Villa Park advanced to the quarterfinals with two straight-set victories.