Sea King duo cruises through sectional

COSTA MESA ? On the tennis court, Corona Del Mar High junior Dustin Hladek and sophomore Fabian Matthews looked like they been playing doubles together for years, not months.

Opponents sure couldn’t tell the difference Friday at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center, the site of the CIF Southern Section Individual Tennis Regional. Hladek and Matthews didn’t drop a set, going a perfect 3-0 to advance to next Friday’s round of 16 at the Seal Beach Tennis Center.

“I don’t know what it is; the chemistry’s just really good,” Hladek said. “We’re friends, and we seem to know where each other is on the court, which helps a lot.”

Although no other locals advanced, Estancia senior Scott Braunsdorf ended his career by getting to the second round of singles for the first time. The Eagles’ freshman doubles pairing of Ely Zaidler and Danny O’Neil lost in the first round, as did Sage Hill singles players Martin Park and Robert Wee.

Hladek has been playing doubles all year, while Matthews played singles for the Sea Kings. But they dominated the competition, losing a single game in their four sets leading up to the third round.

With a spot in next weekend’s action on the line, Hladek and Matthews appeared tentative late in the first set against Mira Costa’s Steven Brown and Josh Albert, letting a 5-2 lead shrink to 5-4. But Matthews held serve to win the first set, and the duo regrouped and blanked their opponents in the second set, 6-0.

“They were trying to hit all their winners from the baseline, instead of getting to the net and putting balls away,” said Corona del Mar Coach Tim Mang. “But they’re getting better every time; they’ll be better next time too. They’ve got all the talent to do it ? they just know they have to play together.”

Braunsdorf won in straight sets in his opener against Riverside Poly’s Kliment Bozhilov, but then ran into regional No. 1 seed Nick Meister of Tesoro. Braunsdorf battled, but could only muster a single game in the match’s two sets.

“I was excited that I got to go to the second round, but I knew I had to play the No. 1 seed,” he said. “But it was fun; I just tried my hardest.”

Although Braunsdorf’s freshman teammates of Zaidler and O’Neil lost in straight sets, Estancia Coach Rachel De Los Santos said it was the first time in Braunsdorf’s four years that any of his teammates had made it this far.

O’Neil said he was glad to get the experience.

“It was tough, but we had a good season,” he said. “I’m glad we got here. This is kind of just getting us ready for next year.”

Park and Wee had a tough day. Park had the longest-lasting first-round singles match, but it still ended in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Ricky Wu of El Dorado.

“My serve wasn’t there today,” Park said. “I was making a lot of double faults, and it’s tough to win when you’re making two or three double faults in every game.”

After a slow start in the first set, Wee was competitive in the second set against Villa Park’s Bryan Chung. But he was broken at 3-3, eventually allowing Chung to successfully serve for the match at 5-4.

“I wasn’t playing with any confidence today,” Wee said. “But this stuff doesn’t really bug me. We should have won the Academy League as a team, but we didn’t. That bugs me.”

Still, Lightning Coach A.G. Longoria said the prognosis is good for Sage Hill.

“This is the best we’ve ever done, having two players here in singles,” Longoria said. “We’ve got Robert and Martin back next year and we’ll have more experience. We’re looking forward to it.”

The doubles Round of 16 and quarterfinals are next Friday afternoon, with the semifinals and finals on Saturday.

“It’s going to be so tough; now we really have to play against the best of the best,” Matthews said. “I hope we pull through.”