PTC Dominates South Bay

The best players have a nack for playing their best in the biggest tournaments so it was only natural that several local juniors from the Palisades Tennis Center have reached the second weekend of the 28th annual South Bay Junior Open–one of the premiere events in Southern California. The tournament started with 1,176 players from California, Texas, New York, Florida, Nevada, Texas, Illinois, Indiana and even Tokyo, Japan–all looking to earn national ranking points. In the Boys 10s, PTC players Harry Cohen, Lucas Bellamy and RJ Sands each got through the first three rounds last weekend. Cohen dropped only four games with wins over Glendale’s Matt Tsoiakyan and Santa Barbara’s Phil Hicks. Bellamy and Sands also did not drop a set on their paths to the second weekend. In the Girls 10s, Mary Profit barely lost a game en route to advancing. Lucas’s older brother Robbie got through five rounds in the Boys 14s and did not drop a set on the way. He knocked out the 17th seed from Newport Beach, Dante Saleh, by a score of 7-5, 6-2, then beat fourth-seeded Abe Hewko of Palm Desert, 6-1, 6-2. Also in the Boys 14s, Alex Solonin got through five matches without losing a set, even ousting Corpus Christi standout Blake Anthony in the fourth round. One of the best performances of the tournament was turned in by emerging PTC star Cristobal Rivera, who played “up” in the Boys 16s and posted three big wins–including a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 triumph over third-seeded Erik Lim of Palos Verdes Estates. Rivera, who has been training at the PTC for four years, used powerful groundstrokes to pin Lim to the baseline. Reid Shumway survived through three rounds in the Boys 12s before losing to No. 1-seeded Gabe Rapoport of Malibu. Shumway lost a mere five games before that match. In the Boys 14s, Derek Levchenko won his first three matches before falling to the fifth seed. PTC standouts Josh Rosen, Alex Giannini, Michael Genender and Elizabeth Profit also moved on to this weekend’s elite rounds.