6 locals make CIF Individuals boys’ tennis semifinals
CLAREMONT — It was a very impressive day for the Surf League on Wednesday at the CIF Southern Section Individuals boys’ tennis tournament.
How impressive?
Of the 12 players that have advanced to the tournament semifinals at Biszantz Family Tennis Center, half of them come from the Surf League.
Four Corona del Mar players stamped their tickets with standout performances Wednesday, including top-seeded defending CIF singles champion Niels Hoffmann.
Meanwhile, the No. 4-seeded Marina doubles team of sophomore David Tran and junior Trevor Nguyen also advanced.
Hoffmann, the Ojai champion this year, made it back to the final four with relative ease. He beat Ian McGowan of Great Oak 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 16 before topping Jeremy Sieben of Flintridge Prep, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
Hoffmann’s opponent Thursday at 10 a.m. in the semifinals will be either No. 4-seeded Riley Anson of JSerra or Drew Koval of Oak Park.
His match against Sieben was close early in each set before he pulled away.
“It’s taking care of business, so to speak, just handling what I know I can be doing and should be doing,” said Hoffmann, bound for USC. “I did get it done. I think there’s definitely some three-quarter forehands that need to go deeper and a few balls that I shouldn’t be missing, but overall it’s not always easy to get through these guys that want to beat you, right? He could have a really good day and look like a superstar out there, and that’s something that I have to take seriously and handle.”
On the other side of the draw is Hoffmann’s senior teammate and good friend, No. 3-seeded Jack Cross. He also made the semifinals without dropping a set, beating Ronith Sreeram of ML King 6-1, 6-1 before topping Dylan Lin of Oaks Christian, 6-1, 6-2.
Cross will play either No. 2-seeded Beckman freshman Tyler Lee, or Will Lokier of Palos Verdes, in the semifinals.
“I was up 6-1, 3-0 [against Lin] before I lost some momentum,” said Cross, bound for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “Tennis is a crazy sport. It’s the only sport where you could be up 6-1, 3-0 and it’s not even close to over … but overall I thought I played pretty good, taking care of business today. I would have liked to have had a little bit less time on court, but I’ll take what I’m going to take.”
Marina’s Tran and Nguyen were the Surf League doubles champions and Ojai semifinalists. They played well Wednesday, beating a team from Woodbridge 6-3, 6-0 before powering past Colin Bringas and Eddie Feuer of Palos Verdes Peninsula, 6-2, 6-0.
Tran said he played some of his best tennis of the season in the latter match.
“It’s a good momentum,” he said. “We knew coming into this tournament that we had a pretty good chance of going deep. I’m really happy that we made it to the third [day].”
The Vikings duo will play top-seeded Caleb Settles and Mateen Ghafarshad of Claremont in the CIF Individuals semifinals Thursday morning, a rematch of the Ojai semifinals.
CdM senior Jonathan Hinkel and junior Roger Geng got through a tough test in doubles. After beating a team from Brentwood, 6-2, 6-4, Hinkel and Geng upset No. 3-seeded Braun Levi and Cooper Schwartz of Loyola in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 5-7 and 10-5 in the match tiebreaker.
Hinkel and Geng had to regroup after the Loyola team rallied from 5-3 down in the second set to force the match tiebreaker.
“[CdM coach] Jamie [Gresh] came in and just told us that we had to leave that second set behind us,” Hinkel said. “They played it really well. We jumped in the tiebreaker just open-minded, playing the tennis that we know how to play from that first set. We slowed down and made balls in play. Part of it was being more aggressive, too.”
Hinkel and Geng will play No. 2-seeded SangHyuk Im and Bradley Yung of rival University in the semifinals. It will be their fifth matchup against Im and Yung this season, with the Trojans duo taking three of the previous four sets in the dual match format.
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