Joe Has No Alternative but to Regret His Fate

A downcast Darren Joe stood on the sidelines Wednesday and waited for an unlikely opportunity at the Southern California Junior Tennis Championships, but it never came.

Joe, honored this week by The Times as the region’s high school player of the year after going 49-2 at Westlake, was the first alternate if anybody in the 18-and-under division dropped out, but nobody did.

Joe failed to qualify for one of 16 feed-in spots in the 32-player tournament. After getting a first-round bye in last week’s qualifying tournament, Joe beat two opponents before losing to Anthony Mateljan of Fallbrook, 6-2, 6-2.

“I’m extremely disappointed with the way I played that day,” Joe said. “I hate this. It’s frustrating. I’m just upset with my performance.”

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Golan Sassoon’s bumpy ride toward success hit another pot hole with a first-round loss in boys’ 18s here. Sassoon, a 6-foot-4 serve-and-volleyer, faced U.S. Junior National Team member Jose Lieberman. Lieberman won, 6-2, 6-3, in a match that provided quite a contrast.

Second-seeded Lieberman is 5-8 and built like a fullback, and he was the attacker. Sassoon, an Encino resident, looks like a basketball player.

“When he’s all over the net you think, ‘Where do I go to pass him?’ ” Lieberman said. “He hung in there and played tough. It wasn’t an easy 6-3, 6-2 match.”

Sassoon, who played at Taft High, would have contended for the City Section singles title, but academic problems sidelined him the past two seasons. He graduated from Taft last week and has accepted Coach Guy Fritz’s invitation to play at state community college power College of the Desert.

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Among the entries from the Valley/Ventura region, the 16s far outshined the 18s in the first round. Only two of seven in the senior group won. Four of five girls and all seven boys advanced through the first round of 16s.

The group included third-seeded Nick Weiss of Calabasas, fourth-seeded Bernadette Bayani of Simi Valley and seventh-seeded Maureen Diaz of Glendale. Jieun Jacobs of Valencia, the 14s champ last year, also advanced.