The 46th annual Northridge Tennis Tournament took place last week and 850 of Southern California’s best junior players participated. As usual, the Palisades Tennis Center was well-represented. In the boys’ 10s division, Roscoe Bellamy came in third place out of 64 players in his 64 draw. He is only nine years old and so he has another full year and a half in the age group. New Palisadian TJ Pura turned heads on his way to the finals in the boys’ 16s. Cristobal Rivera finished third in the same division, knocking off five of California’s best before falling to the same player who beat Pura. Also making noise last week was PTC phenom Clay Thompson, who won four rounds at a USTA pro event in Calabasas. Thompson, who reached the semifinals of the Shotgun 21 Tournament over the summer, just turned 17. He is one of the top recruits in the country and has chosen to go to college instead of going straight to the ATP Tour. Playing the same pro event, 14-year-old Robbie Bellamy, a freshman at Palisades High, notched his first pro tournament victory, beating Charles Schroeder before falling to eventual winner Joseph Lizardo of Maryland. Two weeks ago, at the Lynn Scott Memorial Open in Riverside, fourth-seeded Spencer Pekar of Palisades High didn’t drop a set on his way to the boys’ 16s finals. He finally lost to No. 2-seeded Ryo Shimzo of Yorba Linda at Riverside Community College.
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