It takes talent and hard work to reach the top in any sport, but local tennis players Robbie Bellamy and Alex Giannini have several factors on their side as they pursue the No. 1 doubles ranking in the country in the boys 14s division. Partners for almost a year now, the 13-year-olds have almost the same exact birthday, meaning they can compete in their age group the longest possible time. One reason they play so ‘big’ is because they are both big for their age–Giannini stands 6′ 0′ with a size 12′ sneaker and Bellamy is 5′ 11″ and wears a size 13. They not only enjoy a time and size advantage, however. They also have loads of ability and spend hours a day practicing at the Palisades Tennis Center courts. Giannini hits 120-mile-per-hour serves and Bellamy can crack the 110-m.p.h. range. Bellamy can routinely pound forehands over 100 m.p.h. and Giannini is a lightning-quick mover at the net. What really makes the Palisades’ dynamic duo so tough to beat, though, is their ability to anticipate each other’s moves. That just might be their ticket to the top of the tennis mountain. Last week, the PTC pair went up against the nation’s best at the Copper Bowl, a premiere junior event in Tucson, Arizona. The Palisadians were seeded ninth and opened against Carter Lin and Ognien Samardzic from the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida, where Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova and hundreds of other top-ranked pros have trained. The Pali duo breezed through the pro set, 8-3. Next up were No. 8-seeded Ben and Mason Vierra of Monterey, both of whom were also highly-ranked in the singles draw. Giannini and Bellamy raced to a 4-1 lead before the Vierra brothers rallied to force a 10-point “super” tiebreaker. Down 8-7, Bellamy served and pulled off a shoestring volley that Mason was unable to return. Bellamy and Giannini won the next two points and the match. Waiting in the quarterfinals were 10th-seeded Mike Brewer from Houston and Austin Spinazze from Shreveport, Louisiana, who succumbed 8-4 to the Palisades Express. In the semifinals, the locals lost to second-seeded Hunter and Yates Johnson, twins from Litchfield Park, Arizona. In December, at the national championships in Irvine, Bellamy and Giannini teamed up to knock off two of the best tandems in the country, including Stefan Menichella and Edward Kim in a third set tiebreaker when Bellamy hit a missile return of serve that caught the net cord and bounced over Menichella’s racket. Bellamy attends Corpus Christi while Giannini goes to Paul Revere Middle School. Both intend to play at Palisades High next year. They will join forces again at the Super Nationals in Claremont. * * * * In the 10s division, PTC standout Ben Goldberg made the semifinals at the Esme Pearson Designated in San Diego. He beat Palm Desert’s Alex Kuperstein and Davy Bolkvadze of San Diego by identical 6-4, 6-4 scores. In the quarterfinals, Goldberg upset Patrick Trhac (ranked No. 10 in Southern California) 6-2, 6-1, before losing to Trevor Faulk of La Jolla. “I started feeling sick in the warm-up,” Goldberg said. “I had nothing left in the tank against Trevor.” Goldberg reached the finals of the Matador Tournament in Northridge in December and made the quarterfinals of the Los Caballeros Classic in September, beating the No. 5 and No. 9 seeds in the process. Goldberg is one of the PTC’s fastest-improving juniors and is poised for more winning in 2009. * * * * Fresh off last week’s success at the Copper Bowl in Arizona, Marquez Elementary’s Harry Cohen has advanced to this weekend’s semifinals at the Satellite Masters Invitational. Along the way, Cohen eliminated Isaiah Volk of Los Angeles, 6-4, 6-4, and Daniel Grigg of Studio City, 6-2, 6-1. In a gutsy quarterfinal round effort, Cohen rebounded from a rough first set to outlast Ryan Ruffels of Laguna Niguel, 2-6 6-0, 7-6(8). Cohen, 9, is playing so well that he even won two rounds in the 12-and-under draw at the Copper Bowl last week. Cohen also trains at the Palisades Tennis Center. In October, he won the Beverly Hills Classic, then teamed with Samuel Feit to reach the doubles semifinals in Orange County.
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