There’s been no shortage of tennis success stories coming out of the Pacific Palisades’ youth ranks over the last few weeks. In early February, 10-year-old Chloe Bendetti won the Eighth Annual Ramada Junior Open Tournament in Claremont. After a first-round bye, she won each of her three matches in straight sets, including a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Amanda Tabanera in the final. The win came at a great time for Chloe: she’ll temporarily trade in her racket for a baseball bat as she plays in the PPBA this season. At the 66th Annual Fullerton Junior Tennis Tournament’where 1,175 players participated in one of California’s biggest tournaments’a contingent from the Palisades enjoyed more success. In the Boys’ 12 Doubles, Palisadian Ben Goldberg (a seventh grader at Paul Revere) and his doubles partner Connor Rapp won 8-6 in the finals to capture the championship trophy. The third-seeded team, Goldberg and Rapp defeated the top two seeds en route to the title. And the win was particularly sweet for Goldberg, considering he broke his wrist last fall and had the cast removed only four months ago. In addition, Palisadian Robbie Bellamy (who also is a top singles player for PaliHi) captured the Boys’ 16 Doubles title playing alongside his doubles partner, Gage Brymer of Irvine. The duo beat the top-seeded pairing of Garcia-Kim 8-4 to take home the title (their 3rd straight tournament win) and run their tournament record together to 14-0 overall. Bellamy also won the Boys’ 16 Singles title at the USTA Regional Tournament in Las Vegas (a National tournament with players from across the country) in January.
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