Erik Boal
ALHAMBRA -- A small crowd of fans assembled outside the Alhambra High
tennis courts Tuesday for the Moors CIF Southern Section Division I boys'
tennis first-round playoff match against visiting Glendale, hoping to see
highly touted sophomore singles player Robert Yim.
Even a few discussed the possibility of watching the
always-entertaining doubles tandem of Jay Sim and Tony Topsakalyan, which
recently took runner-up honors in the Pacific League tournament and
qualified for the May 19 CIF tournament.
Instead, those who still remained midway through the match were
treated to the hard-earned points of freshman No. 3 singles player Emil
Nazaretian, who, along with a split-up Topsakalyan and Sim -- who played
No. 1 and 2 singles -- cruised to a 14-4 victory.
The final tally was a little misleading for both teams, as Alhambra
(10-6) was without four of the nine players in its usual lineup, who were
forced to miss the match due to conflicting advanced-placement testing.
However, the Nitros (11-7) -- who will host top-seed Los Alamitos in
the second-round -- were without, and will be once again minus the
services Thursday, of Yim, who left three hours before Tuesday's match to
travel to Houston for the NEC World Youth Cup.
"It would have been fun to see Robert go against Los Alamitos, and
that alone would have made us competitive in singles," Glendale Coach Bob
Davidson said.
"With Tony and Jay, along with Andy and Ray [Kim], that gives us a
chance to steal a few [sets] in doubles, and if Robert swept all his
singles, we might have been able to sneak up on them a little bit.
"Now, all I can do is hope for a few points in singles and see what
our doubles can do."
And even though the Moors were forced to default all three sets at the
No. 3 doubles position, Davidson's squad still won 11 of the 15 sets,
albeit not without a little drama.
Sim, who cruised through his first set with a 6-1 win against Han Zaw,
spotted his next two opponents -- Sheng Yu and Gene Ma -- leads in both
sets, before rallying to win.
Against Ma, Sim fell behind, 4-0, before running off six consecutive
games.
Topsakalyan had a much more relaxed go of it, sweeping, 6-2, 6-0, 6-2.
And then there was Nazaretian, who was competing at the varsity level
for only the second time this season, who rallied from two early set
losses -- including a 7-6 (7-5) setback -- to post a 6-1 triumph in his last outing and prompt the Nitro faithful to ask him for autographs.
Kim and Kim swept their two sets, 6-4, 6-1, handing Alhambra's Kha
Huynh and Ricardo Chen their only loss of the match.
