Newman Airs It Out in Oh Zone : Tennis: Serve is key as Chatsworth sophomore falls in City singles final.

To hear Chatsworth High tennis player James Oh describe it, one would think he was thoroughly embarrassed by top-seeded Noah Newman of Marshall on Thursday in the semifinal round of the City Section individual championships at the Racquet Centre.

Oh would lead you to believe he lost, 6-Oh, 6-Oh.

“He’s a lot better player than me--he’s always been better,” Oh said. “He never has an off day. He’s a good player. He crushes every ball. I had no confidence.”

Oh, but it wasn’t so bad. Newman beat Oh, 6-3, 6-3.

Yes, Oh was overmatched. A sophomore who entered with a 7-3 record, Oh holds a modest suggested seeding of 43rd in the 16-and-under division on the Southern California junior’s circuit.

Newman has much loftier credentials: the No. 2 ranking in 18s and a record of 19-0 this season in high-school play.

But Oh held his first three serves to keep pace at 3-3 with Newman, an attacker with powerful ground strokes.

In the second set, Oh broke the first three serves of Newman, who broke back three times. Again, 3-3.

In each set, Oh, so close.

Newman, a junior who transferred to Marshall from Montclair Prep, broke Oh’s serve to lead, 4-3, in the first set. He hit a blistering backhand winner off a lob by Oh to lead, 30-0, and hit an overhead smash on break point.

Newman held serve to lead, 5-3, and Oh double-faulted at set point.

“I rushed a little bit, and I guess I was rushing my serve too,” Oh said. “I was pretty nervous. The [pro-Newman] crowd got to me.”

Oh needed a strong first serve to stay in the match. But his serve betrayed him again in the second set when he double-faulted six times, twice on game point.

Oh didn’t collapse, however. Instead, he frustrated Newman by disguising shots, often hitting in unexpected directions.

“I should have done that more, actually,” Oh said. “I should have played more of a strategy game instead of just rushing.”

Newman, who was brilliant at hitting winners on the run, seized control again in the seventh game with two backhand winners and a service winner to lead, 4-3.

Oh’s serve failed him one more time. A double-fault and two ground strokes into the net made it 5-3. Then Newman closed it out, using one of seven aces to set up match point, on which Oh hit a backhand wide.

In the doubles final, Kevin Kim and James White of Granada Hills fell to Jason Ebin and Danny Westerman of Palisades, 6-1, 6-2. White and Kim, a Highlander tandem the past three seasons, entered the match with a 22-3 record.

“Both of us weren’t really on today, which is unfortunate because today was the day,” White said. “The wind played a little factor on my serve. I had trouble keeping it in.”