SBCC’s Ryan Sweeney, Elliot Markowitz and Alex Zazove all survived the first day and moved into Saturday’s Round of 16 in the WSC Tennis Championships at Pershing Park and the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club. Three doubles teams are also one step from the quarterfinals.
Play will be stopped at the quarterfinal stage with eight singles players and eight doubles teams moving on to the Southern Cal Regional on April 30-May 2 at Long Beach City College. Singles play starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday with doubles at 1 p.m.
Santa Barbara’s Ryan Sweeney, the No. 5 seed, and No. 16 Elliott Markowitz both had byes in the first round of the 48-player draw. Sweeney beat Pedro Arteaga of Ventura 7-5, 6-3 in the second round while Markowitz took care of Pierce’s Tunde Alele 6-2, 6-1.
“Looking at the draw, it pretty much played out the way it was seeded,” said SBCC coach Don Lowry, the 1979 WSC singles champion. “This is a great tournament. I wish we’d play it out to the end. On Saturday, every match will be a challenge.”
Sweeney will play 15th-seed Joey Tresierros of Glendale with Markowitz battling second-seeded Rony Yeghnazary, also of Glendale. Alex Zazove of SBCC moved into the third round without picking up his racket, thanks to a bye and a default. He’ll meet No. 4 Alexandre Riggobello of Ventura.
SBCC’s Zack Scott received a bye and then pushed eighth-seeded Ryan Stanbury of Glendale to three sets before falling 6-1, 1-6, 6-2. Andy Christensen beat Vaquero teammate Maurice Cohen 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 but fell to No. 15 Alexandre Piccin of Ventura 6-1, 6-1.
In doubles, No. 2 seed Sweeney-Markowitz and No. 4 Zazove-Scott both moved into the Round of 16 with byes. Maurice Cohen-Andy Christensen also advanced with a 7-6 (0), 6-4 triumph over Matias Castro-Logan Feldstein of L.A. Pierce.
Andrew Sokolsky-Johannes Vedin suffered a first-round setback to Jon Lexa-Kevin Finkelberg of Pierce 6-3, 6-2 while Antonio Rodrigues-Hiro Inoue fell to Ventura’s Piccin-Shane McNulty 7-5, 6-4.
