Nitros duo off to semis
BURBANK — Despite competing in the sweltering heat, the top seeds in the Pacific League tennis prelims took care of business without hardly breaking a sweat.
For the Glendale High boys’ doubles team of Nick Daka and Mike Astorian and Burbank singles player Arthur Karagezian, that’s the way they wanted it during their first- and second-round matches Monday afternoon at Burroughs High.
Daka and Astorian swept their two matches and Karagezian lost just one game to keep their hopes for a league championship alive.
“I thought I played OK, but it wasn’t my best,” Astorian, a junior, said. “If we play at our best, then there won’t be any trouble.”
Daka and Astorian, who finished runner-up last year in the tournament, opened the tournament with a 6-1, 6-0 victory against the 16th-seeded Ayo Beckley and Jose Vasquez of Pasadena. The duo then posted a 6-1, 6-5 victory against eighth-seeded Aaron Kim and Jesse Li of Arcadia to improve to 36-2 in league competition this season.
“Last year was tough for us,” Daka, a junior, said. “Now, we don’t expect anything less than first place.
“We have no excuses.”
The duo will compete at 1 p.m. Wednesday against fifth-seeded Jay Chung and Andre Yanez of Burroughs in a semifinal match at the same venue. The other semifinal match will pit the Arcadia teams of Bo Winton and Tim Sackoo against Bryan Young and Roy Yu.
Karagezian, a sophomore, returned Monday after competing over the weekend in a national tournament in Las Vegas.
He notched a 6-0, 6-0 first-round victory against 16th-seeded Francisco Jimenez of Pasadena. He then responded with a 6-1, 6-0 second-round win against ninth-seeded George Chiu of Arcadia.
Karagezian will meet fourth-seeded Robert Henry of Burroughs in a semifinal match at 1 p.m. Wednesday. The winner will then face second-seeded Trevor Campbell of Burroughs or third-seeded Pete Sangsuriyakul of Burbank in the final.
Crescenta Valley and Hoover didn’t have any of its singles players move on following Monday’s competition.
Kenny Kim, Chris Lee and Frank Son each lost their first-round singles matches. Sean Guerin of Hoover lost his first-round match, while Suren Aydinyan, Alex Abramian and Ashot Papikian of Glendale also lost their first-round contests.
In doubles action, Crescenta Valley’s teams of Marcus Barbosa and Alex Matevosian, Justin Kim and Jason Cheung and Chan Lee and Eric Khanlarian opened with first-round victories. None of the duos notched second-round wins. Glendale’s doubles teams of Gerald Young and Bushra Abdelmalak and Jeff Asano and Elliot Kim fell in their first-round matches, along with Arthur Zohrabians and Ejmin Mehranian and Will Nelson and Juan Peralta of Hoover.
The tournament was originally scheduled to be held at Pasadena High, but was switched to Burroughs because of the 500-acre brush fire in Sierra Madre.
