Hundreds of kids from as far away as Florida, New York and Colorado competed in the third annual Palisades Tennis Center Junior Open last week, a USTA-sanctioned tournament at the Palisades and Westwood Tennis Centers. “It was a great week for tennis in the Palisades,” PTC Director of Tennis Ivan Lauzon said. “It was neat to see how well our kids did against players from all over California and across the nation. You get a better understanding of the magic that takes place here on a daily basis by seeing our kids mixed up with so many kids visiting from afar.” An example of Palisades’ success was in the Boys 10s division, where Corpus Christi fifth-grader Brandon Michaels upset top-seeded Reid Shumway in the semifinals, then beat Gabriel Rapoport of Malibu 6-4, 7-5 in the finals. “I was down 5-3 in the second set and won four straight games,” said Michaels, who entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed. Michaels is on a roll, having won the Seal Beach Open two weeks ago. Another PTC standout took the Boys 12s title as Alex Giannini knocked off Joseph Silvers in the semifinals and beat Victor Cheng, 6-0, 6-1, in the finals. The Girls 10s was won by PTC’s Ilana Oleynik, who beat Lily Wu of San Marino, 6-1, 6-2, in the finals after a tough semifinal victory over Cara Kemp of Bakersfield, 6-1, 7-5. In the Boys 18s, Palisadian Chase Pekar lost to eventual champion Ethan Bond of Beverly Hills a three-set semifinal. Playing up in the Girls 16s, PTC’s Krystal Hansard knocked off the No. 4 seed Hazuki Onaga of El Segundo in three sets in the quarterfinals and routed Michelle Grogin of Hidden Hills, 6-0, 6-1, in the semifinals before losing to No. 1-seeded Jordan Brewer of Woodland Hills in the finals. “We don’t do what we do at the PTC to make Wimbledon champions,” Lauzon said. “The weekly summer camps and after-school clinics are geared towards making tennis a lifetime sport for a child and this is the best place for a kid to learn tennis. It’s really rewarding to see so many young kids playing tough competitive tennis.”
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