Yovan Gets Wish, Advances to Rematch With Buchanan

A month after his loss to Patrick Buchanan in the Ojai finals, Aaron Yovan will get the rematch he desperately wanted. After both players won straight-set matches Friday at Seacliff Tennis Club in Huntington Beach, Yovan of University High and Buchanan of Servite will play at 10:30 a.m. today in the Southern Section individual semifinals.

Yovan, seeded third, defeated John Mano of Los Alamitos, 6-1, 7-5, and Chris Surapol of Cerritos Whitney, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Buchanan, seeded second, got by Steven Hsu of Pasadena Poly, 6-1, 6-1 and Scott Stewart of Malibu, 6-1, 7-5.

Yovan, who lost to Buchanan in three sets at Ojai, said he will try to play as relaxed as possible.

“You don’t want to put too much pressure on yourself, but you know it’s a big match,” he said. “You have to remember to go for your shots and play to win.”

Yovan had to go for his shots against Surapol, who played an unexpected aggressive style.

“I’ve played him nine or 10 times and he’s always stayed back,” Yovan said. “Then, out of the blue he starts coming in to the net.”

It took Yovan a few games, but he began to adjust. He ripped a few one-handed backhands past Surapol and the momentum seemed to change.

Buchanan also had a few struggles in the second set of his second match. But he pulled through and pronounced himself ready for the big rematch.

“My confidence has gone way up,” he said. “You beat Yovan and [Stephen] Armritraj and you know that you beat a lot of people.”

Top-seeded Doug Stewart of Malibu and fourth-seeded Malcolm Scatliffe of San Bernardino San Gorgonio will meet in the other semifinal. Stewart defeated Sergiu Modoc of El Dorado, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals. Modoc had an unexpectedly easy time with Servite freshman Jonathan Sanchez, 6-2, 6-1, but his big serve let him down against Stewart.

“My first serve percentage wasn’t high, so I had to kick a lot of balls to his backhand,” said Modoc, who lost to Buchanan in the Ojai semifinals. “He was taking the ball early and attacking me.”

Cameron Ball of Corona del Mar and Jeffrey Das of Troy lost first-round matches to Armritraj of Encino Crespi and Scott Stewart.

In doubles, top-seeded Brian Morton and Garrett Snyder of Corona del Mar reached the semifinals with a default and a straight-set win. They will play fourth-seeded Emil and Thomas Novack of La Verne Damien.

Third-seeded K.C. Corkery and Ryan Pfeifle of Manhattan Beach Mira Costa and second-seeded Phil Sheng and Andrew Lieu of Thousand Oaks will meet in the other semifinal.