Sea Kings Flex Muscles Against Dana Hills

The high school boys’ tennis season is barely a week old, but so far Corona del Mar looks as good or better than advertised and Dana Hills appears to be a work in progress.

Corona del Mar showed off a much improved singles player in Christian Jensen and a strong group of doubles players in defeating Dana Hills, 12-6, Friday at Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach.

“I was already giving them a lot of credit for being a great team, and I think they lived up to it today,” Dana Hills Coach John Stephens said. “They’re definitely further along than we are. I’ve got three or four seasonal players, so I’m hoping they’ll improve as the year goes on.”

Jensen appears to be improving every day. He upset Dana Hills’ No. 2 singles player Javier Carillo, 6-3, in his first set with powerful serving and aggressive groundstrokes, then nearly upset Dana Hills’ No. 1 player Brian Kent in his third set, losing 7-5.

“He’s pretty good,” Kent said. “His serves are pretty good. It’s a little erratic. But when it’s on, it’s tough.”

Kent, who provided Dana Hills with three of its six points, said he isn’t ready to hand over the Southern Section Division I title to Corona del Mar just yet.

“We knew it was going to be tough,” Kent said. “Our doubles are a little out of practice. But I can’t wait to play them at the end to really see who’s better.”

For now, the biggest difference between Dana Hills (1-1) and Corona del Mar (2-0) is in doubles, where Corona del Mar won seven of nine sets. Sophomores Brian Morton and Randy Myers swept, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5, and seniors Sameer Chopra and Sam Shamardi and freshman Cameron Ball and sophomore Peter Kulmaticki took two of three sets.

Parker Collins, Corona del Mar’s No. 1 singles player, also had a good day--winning two of three sets. He lost to Kent, 7-6 (8-6), in a well-played match in which Collins saved five match points.