Steinberg, Mintz Use Bond for Net Gain

Brad Steinberg and Brian Mintz of Granada Hills High are not only doubles partners, they are best friends. That bond serves them well on and off the tennis court.

“We’re close to each other and we have confidence in each other,” said Steinberg after teaming with Mintz to defeat Steve Choi and Burton Newman of El Camino Real, 6-3, 6-1, in the semifinals of the City Section boys’ doubles tournament on Tuesday at the Warner Center Tennis Club.

“We were unseeded and we feel we haven’t gotten respect all year. But now we’ve made it to the finals.”

Steinberg and Mintz beat Choi and Newman during the regular season, 6-3, 6-0.

“We gave up one more game than we did the last time we played them, but we’ll take it,” said Mintz, a freshman. “It seems like all the matches in this tournament have gone to three sets, including the last one we played. We didn’t want to go through that again.”

The Granada Hills pair will face top-seeded Blake Baumgarten and Peter Shirley of Palisades in the championship match on Thursday at 2 p.m.

The Dolphins’ duo overcame three match points to beat Damion Brown and Geoffrey Grey of Dorsey, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-5, in the other semifinal.

“It will be our hardest match of the season,” said Steinberg, a junior. “We played [Baumgarten and Shirley] in the City [team] finals, and they beat us, so we’ll have to be on our game. The key is to be aggressive at the net.”

Choi and Newman will play Brown and Grey in the third-place match on Thursday.

In singles, No. 2-seeded Ricky Rollins of Palisades defeated sophomore Matt Jones of El Camino Real, 6-3, 6-0. Jones, seeded No. 7, had to borrow a friend’s racket and never looked confident on his ground strokes.

“One of my rackets is cracked and I broke the strings on the other one [Monday],” Jones said. “The grip on this racket is way to big for me.”

Jones played even with Rollins until the eighth game, when Rollins broke serve to go ahead, 5-3. Rollins held at love to take the first set and immediately broke Jones’ serve to open the second set.

“This is by far the worst match I’ve played all tournament,” Jones said.

In the other semifinal, freshman Norman Tam of Bell upset top-seeded Le George Mauldin of Dorsey, 6-3, 6-3. Mauldin and Jones played for third place on Tuesday because Jones had a previous commitment on Thursday.

Jones won, 6-4, 6-4.