Sheng Smiles Through the Pain

Who says youth is wasted on the young?

As the only freshman to make the quarterfinals of the Southern Section individual tennis championships, Philip Sheng adopted a suitably carefree attitude.

It didn’t matter that the Thousand Oaks High underclassman had to withdraw from his match with debilitating leg cramps.

It didn’t matter that he was leading fourth-seeded Carl McCafferty of San Gorgonio, 3-6, 6-3, 3-2, at the time.

Sheng could not help but smile.

“I’m not disappointed at all,” he said.

A person can afford to feel satisfied when, at barely 15 years old, he stands 6-foot-1, possesses a booming forehand and conducts himself with a coolness under pressure that belies his inexperience.

“Nobody believes he’s a freshman,” Thousand Oaks Coach Dave Assorson said. “He doesn’t look like one, act like one or play like one.”

Having already won the Marmonte League singles title earlier this month, Sheng put on a memorable exhibition at the Seacliff Tennis Club on Friday.

In the round of 16, he battled for nearly three hours against Marcin Kosakowski of Warren. At 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, Kosakowski used a fearsome serve to take a 6-3, 2-0 lead before Sheng fought back to even the match at one set each.

The third set went to a tiebreaker with Sheng’s patient groundstrokes proving the difference in a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) victory.

“I don’t know what I was trying to do,” the elated winner said. “I was just trying to get the ball back.”

The tournament schedule allowed for only a half-hour of rest before the match with McCafferty. Again, Sheng fought back after losing the first set but, this time, he did not have the strength to finish. Both he and McCafferty--who also played a three-set match earlier--collapsed at court side, exhausted and sore.

“This is fun,” Sheng said nevertheless. “It’s not like I’m a senior going off to college and I’ll never have another chance to win this.”

Other players from the region were not so pleased.

Erin Carroll of Ventura started the day with a stunning 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 upset victory over second-seeded Ryan Moore of Servite. But in the quarterfinals, it was Carroll who looked stunned as he stumbled through a 7-5, 6-0 loss to Aaron Talarico of Laguna Beach.

“That first set was so crucial,” he said. “[Talarico] got so much confidence and then he got everything back.”

Two doubles teams from Harvard-Westlake suffered similarly disappointing losses.

Kamyar Daneshvar and Aaron Gortman lost to Ryan Terry and Arif Hasan of Diamond Bar, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the round of 16. Kevin and Brian Bezonsky, the No. 3-seeded team, won their first match but lost in the quarterfinals to Jason Mednick and Chris Kan of Aliso Niguel, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

“We thought we could win [the championship],” Brian said.

Kevin shrugged. “We just had a bad day.”

CITY SECTION FINALS

Frank Vlahovic of Verdugo Hills and the doubles team of Matt Weiss and Deepu Murthy of Granada Hills won third-place matches in the City Section boys’ tennis tournament at MountainGate Country Club.

Vlahovic defeated Farhad Hajimirzaee of Taft High, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2.

Weiss and Murthy beat Gilbert Guevara and Frank Aleuado of University, 6-1, 6-3.