Ball Works Through the Ranks, Wins Pacific Coast Title

For two days, Cameron Ball ignored his opponents’ seedings and his own underdog status. And when the Pacific Coast League boys’ tennis championships came to an end, the Corona del Mar sophomore had defeated three of Southern California’s best players and won the league’s singles championship.

Ball, a sophomore who was unseeded and coming back after breaking a finger in March, defeated top-seeded Aaron Yovan of University Wednesday in the title match, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, at the Racquet Club of Irvine.

Ball’s victory over Yovan, a finalist at Ojai last week, was impressive in itself, but he also had a semifinal victory over third-seeded Jack Li and a quarterfinal victory over second-seeded Henry Mak--ranked fourth in the nation in 16’s--three players against whom he had been winless during league play.

“It was quite a boost to go through all three of those guys in just two days,” Ball said. “I wanted to prove that I should have been seeded.”

Ball’s serve was dominating in the final. He had 34 service winners, including six on his second serve.

Despite Yovan rallying from a 5-2 deficit in the second-set tiebreaker, Ball was able to regroup, quickly breaking Yovan in the first game of the final set, with three straight service winners. Both held serve until Ball broke Yovan in the final game with a slam down the middle for the title.

“I served pretty well today,” Ball said. “I’ve kind of gotten on a roll with my serve. I’ve had a little spurt going and I’d like it to continue.”

The Sea Kings, who lost the team title to the Trojans last month, earned a sweep of the individual titles, as top-seeded Peter Kulmaticki and Mike Bean won the all-Corona del Mar doubles final, defeating unseeded Randy Myers and Robert Kennedy, 6-1, 7-6 (7-0).

To get to the finals, Kennedy and Myers had to defeat two University teams, knocking off second-seeded Anson Hsu and Jeff Lawrence in the semifinals after defeating third-seeded Mike Frank and Mike Haier in the quarterfinals.

Corona del Mar claimed three of the league’s four berths in the Southern Section individual tournament.

In the Sea View League finals:

Mednick wins singles title--Jason Mednick of Aliso Niguel defeated Brett Van Ling of Woodbridge, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), to win the league singles title.

In the Golden West League quarterfinals:

Nieto advances--Saddleback’s Ralph Nieto, Tustin’s Ken Sorenson and Ed Reyes and Gilbert Teran of Santa Ana won first-round and quarterfinal matches to advanced to today’s finals at Santa Ana.