Valley Players Advance in Tennis

Granada Hills High notched three doubles victories and two singles victories and all four El Camino Real singles players and two doubles teams won first-round matches in the City Section boys’ tennis individual championships Monday at the Warner Center Tennis Club in Woodland Hills.

Granada Hills’ No. 1 tandem of Brian Mintz and Eric Weiss won, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, over Raiou Mitsuno and Eric Young of Palisades. Mike Edelson and Ananya Sreepathi advanced with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Go Ogaura and Julian Tran of University. The Highlanders’ No. 3 team of Anand Murthy and Steve Choi outlasted Greg Toung and Moses Pantapalangkoor of Sherman Oaks CES, 7-6 (7-2), 1-6, 6-4.

Sophomore Jason Nguyen of Chatsworth, seeded No. 1 in the 32-player singles draw, needed only 35 minutes to dispatch Eagle Rock’s Fred Fabia, 6-0, 6-0.

“I thought I would be the highest-seeded player in the Valley because I had beaten everybody, but I wasn’t sure about the [other] players,” said Nguyen, ranked nationally in the boys’ 16 division top 20 by the U.S. Tennis Assn.

Nguyen’s singles success may have rubbed off on doubles teammates Scott Gore and Mike Kim, who upset No. 8-seeded Warren Tseng and Wo Zhu of Marshall, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

No. 4-seeded Nima Roshan of Granada Hills struggled early against Kyle Yang of Venice before winning his singles match, 7-5, 6-0, and Vlad Kinevsky of Granada Hills defeated Marshall’s Juan Hernandez, 6-0, 6-2.

No. 6-seeded James Magsino of El Camino Real, the only player to defeat Nguyen in singles play this season, advanced with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Edgar Gutierrez of South Gate. Conquistador teammate Matt Jones, seeded No. 7, defeated Phillip Jerjeu of Palisades, 6-1, 6-4, and El Camino Real’s Bruce Aiken defeated Eugene Han of Van Nuys, 6-2, 6-1. Danny Nguyen of the Conquistadores beat Danny Kim of Van Nuys, 6-4, 6-0.

Aiken will play Tam in the round of 16 Wednesday at the Warner Center. Josh Opos of Grant will play Jones after a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Garfield’s Victor Angeles.

El Camino Real’s top two doubles teams also advanced.

The No. 1 team of Shaun Flynn and Nick Kogan defeated Erick Artiz and Cesar Villegas of Banning, 6-0, 6-2, and the No. 2 team of Burton Newman and Eric Movssessian beat Westchester’s Adam Angsten and Chris Shrader, 6-3, 7-5.