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Locals go for tennis crown

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GLENDALE — The largest annual junior tennis tournament in the United States is taking place in Fountain Valley and some of the area’s best young talent made the trip to compete.

Players from all over the Los Angeles area, including Glendale, La Cañada and La Crescenta, are playing in the 105th Annual Southern California Jr. Sectional Championship.

Play began on Saturday and will continue on through the upcoming week into the following weekend.

Of the local junior players who have competed thus far, four have come out victorious in at least one match.

Two of those were La Crescenta residents competing in the Girls’ 12 division.

Karen Ataian won one of her matches, defeating Elizabeth Ryan, 6-1, 6-1 in the second round after previously beating Amanda Zalameda, 6-1, 6-1, in the opening round of play.

In the same division, Emilia Borkowski defeated Summer Harris-Jones, 6-1, 6-0, in the first round before falling to Vivian Le, 6-2, 6-1 in the second round.

Other winners on the girls’ side were Glendale’s Andrea Kevakian and La Cañada’s Amber Park, who both competed in the Girls’ 10 division.

Kevakian beat Clarissa Requiestas, 6-2, 6-0, in her only match so far. Park defeated Diana Vosahlo in her opening round match.

For the boys, only one local player made it out of the opening round by winning a match.

That player was Glendale’s Edmond Halebian, who opened up play with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Brendan Saldana.

However, he later lost to Ben Lankeneau, 7-5, 6-1, in the ensuing round.

Jeffrey Asano of Glendale put up the best fight in the Boys’ 14 division, but ultimately came up short as he lost, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Anthony Ashikian (Glendale, Boys’ 10) lost to Justin Zhang, 6-2, 6-0, Mustafa El-Harazi (Glendale Boys’ 10) lost 6-1, 6-1, and Alex Frank (La Cañada Boys’ 12) was defeated by Jayson Amos, 6-0, 6-1.

Glendale’s Ejmin Mehranian lost to Gerardo De La Concha in the Boys’ 14 division, while Nicholas Shamna lost to Elijah Ang, 6-2, 6-0, in the Boys’ 12 group.

Matthew Tsolakyan of Glendale was defeated by Samuel Sherman, 6-4, 7-5 and Alex Vartanian, also of Glendale, lost to Jordan Costigan, 6-0, 6-2 in the Boys’ 16 division.


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