Sarkissian and Campbell move on to Ojai final
GLENDALE — Alex Sarkissian only dropped two games in getting through his Men’s Community College Singles quarterfinal match at the 111th Annual Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament on Saturday morning.
The Glendale Community College standout ended up needing any energy he might have conserved during his singles draw, as he and partner Trevor Campbell were given a good run later in the day in the Men’s Community College Doubles semifinal at Ojai Valley Tennis Club.
Sarkissian and Campbell, seeded fifth, held off a strong challenge from ninth-seeded Christian Fischer and Alex Sandry of College of the Desert, winning, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2, to advance to the championship match today at 3:30 p.m.
“Doubles was great, it seems like me and Trevor just seemed to click in this tournament,” Sarkissian said. “We had a tough opponent in the semifinals [Saturday], they were good players. It was good to pull that one through.
“Me and Trevor held up strong in the tiebreaker, we didn’t give up any free points.”
Following the tiebreaker win in the first set, Sarkissian and Campbell quickly found their backs up against the wall once again when Sarkissian had his serve broken to begin the second set, which led to a 2-1 deficit.
“They just got to the point where I’ve never seen five better games,” Glendale college Coach Bob MacKay said of his duo’s surge from being down, 2-1, in the second set to close out the match. “It’s like there was no stopping them. …It was beautiful tennis.”
Campbell said he and his partner, who will face Oliver Andrzejczuk and Torsten Keil-Long of Cypress in the finals, just needed to take a deep breath during difficult portions of the match.
“We relaxed and that gave us more confidence, especially in the second set,” Campbell said. “But in the tiebreak, we just competed really hard and just focused.”
Sarkissian and Campbell began with a 6-4, 6-0, quarterfinal win over Gabriel Dias and Dhanuk Withana of Cypress, but the first local action of the day saw Sarkissian continue his remarkable tournament and season run in singles with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Thomas Millett of Ventura.
“Alex has that ability to stay within himself, he doesn’t try to rush, he plays within his ability,” MacKay said of the top-seeded Sarkissian, who improved to 25-0 in singles this year. “Thomas didn’t do that today, he moved out of the box. He was rushing, he was trying to do too much.”
Sarkissian faces College of the Desert’s fifth-seeded Rodrigo Schaefer in the semifinal at 8 a.m. today and the finals are set for 11 a.m.
Also on Saturday, Crescenta Valley High senior Sarah Ali and Jerusha Cruz were eliminated in the first round of the Women’s Open Doubles tournament, 6-1, 6-1, by Zsuzsanna Fodor and Amy Jensen.