Jones Singles Out Teammate

When sophomores James Magsino and Matt Jones of El Camino Real met in the quarterfinals of the City Section singles tournament Wednesday at the Warner Center Tennis Club, both knew exactly what to expect: A tough match.

“It’s so much harder playing James because we know each other’s games so well,” said the seventh-seeded Jones, who beat his practice partner, 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-3.

“It goes back and forth. Sometimes I win, sometimes he wins. But this was by far our longest match.”

The match lasted nearly three hours.

The players did not talk to each other and sat on opposite sides of the court during changeovers.

“I wanted to win the first set, but he played some good shots,” said Magsino, who was seeded third. “I didn’t want to have to go three sets.”

Magsino is ranked No. 41 in the boys’ 16s by the Southern California Tennis Assn. and Jones is 20 spots behind at No. 61. Both train at Cal State Northridge under Coach Craig Cignarelli.

A similar scenario unfolded in doubles when Granada Hills’ top two teams played in the quarterfinals.

Again, it was the lower-seeded team advancing, as unseeded Brian Mintz and Brad Steinberg beat fourth-seeded Anand Murthy and Dan Lim, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Lim injured his wrist in the round of 16 earlier in the day when he and Murthy beat Jared Libert and John Ly of Cleveland, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

Mintz and Steinberg will play Steve Choi and Burton Newman of El Camino Real in the semifinals.

Choi and Newman upset second-seeded Matt Berman and Alex Leb in their first match of the day, 6-7 (7-1), 6-1, 6-4, then beat Davey Asao and Michael Kim of Chatsworth, 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.

Top-seeded Blake Baumgarten and Peter Shirley of Palisades will play unseeded Damion Brown and Geoffrey Grey of Dorsey in the other semifinal. Brown and Gray upset third-seeded Shaun Flynn and Ryan Geist of El Camino Real in the quarterfinals, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.

In singles, freshman Nima Roshan of Cleveland gave top-seeded Le George Mauldin of Dorsey a scare before falling, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the round of 16.

Dan Nguyen of El Camino Real upset fifth-seeded Jeff Melnick of Palisades, 6-3, 6-1, but lost, 6-2, 6-0, to Mauldin in the quarterfinals.

Eighth-seeded Norman Tam of Belmont defeated Lee Weinstein of Granada Hills, 6-2, 6-4, in the round of 16. Tam will meet Mauldin in the semifinals today.

Jones will play second-seeded Ricky Rollins of Palisades in the other semifinal.

“I’ll have to play better than I did today to beat Ricky,” Jones said. “I’ll have to be at the top of my game.”