The school season has only just begun but Palisades High senior Kathryn Cullen is already making her presence felt on the junior tennis circuit. Cullen won the Girls 18s division at the 78th annual Santa Monica Junior Open last weekend, beating Dolphins teammate Genna Rochlin in the first round and ousting Julie Housman of Beverly Hills, 6-4, 6-0, in the finals. In the Girls 16s, Palisades High junior Audrey Ashraf reached the semifinals before losing to Miyu Terada, 6-0, 6-1. Second-seeded Elizabeth Ryan won the Girls 12s by injury default over Christine Maddox while fellow Palisadian Julie Engel lost to Margarita Uribe of Compton, 6-3, 6-4, in the first round. Connor Treacy of the Palisades Tennis Center won the Boys 16s, defeating Spencer Suk, 6-1, 6-0, in the finals. He beat Ali Yazdi, 6-1, 6-1, in the first round; Patrick Massey, 6-2, 6-3, in the second round; and Brandon Clark, 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals. PTC player Alex Baettig won his first match over fifth-seeded Sam Farzani and Palisades High’s Jeremy Shore advanced to the second round before falling to Andrew Berman. The Boys 14s division pitted several local players against each other. Robbie Bellamy beat fellow Palisadians Sean Ryan (6-1, 6-0) and Spencer Pekar (7-6, 6-3) before losing in the semifinals to Santa Monica’s Conrad McKinnon, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. In the Boys 12s, Thomas Ryan beat Victor Cheng, 6-3, 6-1. Jonathan Pollare lost to Matthew Gertler of Tarzana, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, in the first round of the Boys 18s and fellow Palisadian Eli Goodman lost to William Ngo, 6-3, 7-5, in the first round of the Boys 14s. In the Boys 19s, Lucas Bellamy defeated Dillon Orian of Malibu before falling to top-seeded Gabriel Rapoport and fellow Palisadian Jackson Kogan blanked Joss Saltzman before losing to Michael Genender. Palisadian Jake Sands advanced to the semifinals in the Boys 8s while brother R.J. Sands had to default his first match.
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