Nahjimirzaee, Vlahovic Advance to Semifinals

Farhad Nahjimirzaee of Taft High and Frank Vlahovic of Verdugo Hills advanced to the semifinals of the City Section individual tennis championships Thursday by scoring straight-set victories.

Nahjimirzaee defeated Eugene Rapada of Eagle Rock, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals at the Studio City Racquet Centre. Vlahovic beat Chris Yoo of Granada Hills, 7-5, 6-1, at MountainGate Country Club.

In other quarterfinal matches, Artin Tafazoli of City 4-A champion Palisades eliminated Vincent Hsu, No. 1 singles player for two-time City 3-A champion Van Nuys, 6-0, 6-0, and LeGeorge Mauldin of Dorsey ousted Steve Ishoo of Granada Hills, 6-1, 6-0.

In the semifinals, Vlahovic will meet Tafazoli and Nahjimirzaee will face Mauldin.

In a quarterfinal doubles match, Deepu Murthy and Matt Weiss of Granada Hills eliminated teammates Danny Lim and Anand Murthy, Deepu’s younger brother, 6-1, 6-3.

Ricky Rollins and Blake Baumgarten of Palisades knocked out Ali Fakhari and Lee Weinstein of Granada Hills, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Gilbert Guevara and Frank Aleuado of University outlasted James Magsino and Burt Newman of El Camino Real, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3.

Albert Kim and Judelson Enriquez of Narbonne got past Fadi Ghishan and Arash Shirehjini of Taft, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.

The semifinals are Wednesday at 1 p.m. at MountainGate.