Foothill’s Hol, Servite’s Moore Set to Test Their Friendship

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  Friday’s Southern Section boys’ tennis individuals tournament at SeaCliff Country Club featured a few upsets, a heart-breaking loss and some exciting tennis. But the real excitement should come today when best friends face off in a singles semifinal and two Sea View League rivals hook up in a doubles semifinal.

Servite’s Ryan Moore and Foothill’s Joost Hol each had an easy time Friday with straight-set victories, but they know today won’t be so easy. Moore and Hol have been doubles partners and hitting partners for years, but they don’t often meet in tournaments.

The last time they played was two years ago in the section individuals round of 16. Moore won, 7-6, 6-2. But Hol’s game and his body have grown up since then. He now stands 6 feet 2 and his serve is one of the fastest in high school tennis.

“Any time Joost is on, he’s pretty tough to beat,” Moore said. “He’s got that huge forehand and huge serve.”

Those weapons and his results this season were enough to make Hol the tournament’s top-seeded player.

“I was a little surprised,” Hol said. “There’s a lot of tough players here. It’s a honor to be the top seed.”

Said Moore: “That makes me want to beat him even more.”

Moore reached the semifinals by defeating Los Angeles Brentwood’s Gabe Goldstein and Etiwanda’s Robert Ortiz, who upset fourth-seeded John Paul Fruttero of San Marino in the round of 16. Hol beat Oak Park’s Joey Edelberg and Ji Chung of Glendale.

Sunny Hills senior Chris Chung appeared on the verge of joining Moore and Hol in the semifinals but lost to Jamie Sahara of Santa Maria St. Joseph’s, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Chung had a game point to go up 5-4 in the third set but lost the next three points. He also had a break point when he was down 5-4 but could never break through.

Sophomores Cody Jackson of Los Alamitos and David Lingman of Woodbridge were beaten in the round of 16. Jackson lost to Sahara, 6-4, 6-3.

“My serve wasn’t going in and I was hitting a lot of balls long,” Jackson said. “I knew what I was doing wrong, but my mind couldn’t tell my body what to do.”

Lingman was 61-2 in dual matches before losing to Scott Carlton of La Verne Damien, 7-5, 6-3.

“He was hitting them high and deep all the time,” Lingman said. “I didn’t think I could hit them back that way and win. I went for too much and missed too much, especially on the big points.”

One doubles semifinal will be a rematch of the Sea View doubles championship between Santa Margarita’s Cody Shedd and Andy Tsu and Woodbridge’s Reza Farokhpay and Tyler Call. Farokhpay and Call won the league finals, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.

“I was hoping we would play them again,” Shedd said.

Said Tsu: “We needed some redemption. That last match we played with them was sone of the worst tennis we’ve played this year. Revenge is sweet, so it’ll be nice to win.”

Farokhpay said the match with Shedd and Tsu nearly three weeks ago is fresh in his mind.

“I didn’t expect to play them this soon,” he said. “It seems like we just played yesterday.”

Four county doubles teams were ousted in the first round--Sunny Hills’ two teams of Raj Vyas and Davin Lin and John Choi and Tuji Chang, Aliso Niguel’s Jason Mednick and Jon Lippert and Los Alamitos’ Ed Huang and Samir Vora. Capistrano Valley’s Scott Merryman and Michael Nguyen beat Vyas and Lin in the round of 16 then lost to Los Angeles Loyola’s Paul Moore and J.J. Stewart in the quarterfinals, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).