Orange County Singles Players Suffer Early Knockouts

Six county singles players started the day with a chance to win the Southern Section individual title. But by Friday evening, aching bodies and sore egos were all that was left of the county singles contingent at Seacliff Tennis Club.

Woodbridge’s David Lingman and Dana Hills’ Brian Kent came the closest to reaching today’s semifinals, but they lost grueling three-set matches.

The county doubles players fared better. Dana Hills’ second-seeded team of Jon Lippert and Blake Wilson-Hayden won twice in straight sets as did Corona del Mar’s third-seeded team of Sameer Chopra and Christian Jensen. The county teams will meet in the semifinals at 10:30 a.m.

Lingman was the only county player seeded in singles and he fell to fifth-seeded Carl McCafferty of San Bernardino San Gorgonio, who reached the finals of Ojai. McCafferty, who has signed with Purdue, beat Lingman, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, but it was a victory he won’t soon forget. Lingman made McCafferty sweat as he saved seven match points before succumbing.

Over the last two days, Lingman has played some of the best tennis of his career, keying his team’s semifinal victory over Los Alamitos Thursday with a comeback win over Cody Jackson and then nearly gutting out a win over McCafferty.

“I have no legs left, but I wasn’t going to give up,” Lingman said. “I figure it’s my last CIF. I might as well give it my all. If it wasn’t for a few lapses, I could have won.”

Lingman, who will play for Harvard next season, was rusty entering the high school season. But he has sharpened his game.

“I could never string it together for a sustained period, but lately I’ve been keeping it together longer,” he said.

Jackson kept it together for a match as he got by Dana Hills’ Javier Carrillo, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). But his body gave out against top-seeded Philip Sheng of Thousand Oaks, who had a first-round bye after his opponent pulled out of the tournament.

“He was rested up a lot and I had a tough first-round match,” Jackson said. “And I was still feeling it from playing David [Lingman] the day before.”

Sheng, a sophomore, is ranked fourth in Southern California in the boys’ 18s. Jackson, who has signed with Rice, had the edge in experience. But that might have been his only edge.

“He had all the energy,” Jackson said. “His serve was on. The first game I didn’t even touch the ball.”

Kent, who will play next season at Boston College, lost to second-seeded Nicholas Weiss of Calabasas, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, but the last two games will leave a sour taste in his mouth. Kent had three break points at 4-4 in the third set and he led 40-15 at 4-5.

“I could have done a lot more in those last two games,” said Kent, who complained of sore feet in the last set. “But I was real tired.”

Corona del Mar’s Parker Collins wasn’t tired, but he was sore. Collins’ back tightened up on him in the first set of his round of 16 match against Claremont’s Daniel Clemens. It never loosened up, even with four Advils, and he lost, 6-4, 6-3.

Sunny Hills junior Joseph Kao battled San Marino’s Zoran Korac for two hours, but fell, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, in the round of 16.

Also in the round of 16, Corona del Mar’s Randy Myers and Brian Morton lost to Thousand Oaks’ Andrew Lieu and Willie Mullin, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, and Los Alamitos’ Samir Vora and Mike O’Bradovitch lost to Will Powers and John McManigal of Santa Barbara, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.