Los Alamitos High tennis player Riley Smith and the Los Al doubles team of Vatsal Bajpai and Kyle McCann each reached the quarterfinals of the CIF-SS Individual Championships on Friday at Seal Beach Tennis Center.
Los Alamitos High tennis player Riley Smith and the Los Al doubles team of Vatsal Bajpai and Kyle McCann each reached the quarterfinals of the CIF-SS Individual Championships on Friday at Seal Beach Tennis Center.
All three battled through three set matches in the round of 16, but were eliminated later in the day with quarterfinal losses. Smith faced a familiar foe in the round of 16, when he battled back after losing the first set, to knock off Brandon Holt of Palos Verdes High, 3-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Smith has trained with Holt in the past, starting when the two were about 10 years old. Holt is one of the sons of former tennis pro Tracy Austin. Smith admitted that nerves may have hampered him a bit in the first set, when Holt used his strong serve and net play to jump out to the early lead.
But Smith was able to settle in, extend rallies and pick his moments to attack.
“Once I got a hold of it, I played some of the best tennis I’ve played,” Smith said.
Smith opened the second set with the serve and held strong, ending the first game with an ace serve. His patience paid off in the second game as Holt made some unforced errors on long rallies, including hitting a baseline volley into the net to allow Smith to break serve and take a 2-0 lead.
In the third game, Smith again held serve, taking a 40-15 lead on another Holt baseline volley into the net. Smith finished the game with another ace serve to take a 3-0 lead. Smith would cruise to the 6-0 win, making adjustments each time Holt tried to press the action with more aggressive play at the net.
Smith’s adjustments seemed to take Holt out of his game.
“I think Riley Smith definitely cleaned up his game and played a really good second set and third, but I just felt like Brandon was lacking confidence,” Palos Verdes coach Danny Moscovici said.
After taking the second set, Smith grabbed early control of the third set and held off some challenges from Holt. After falling behind 3-0, Holt used some solid serve and volley plays to set up winning drop shots and hits to the corners to take the fourth game and close the gap to 3-1.
But Smith responded on his serve in the fifth game, not giving up a point to win the game and take a 4-1 lead. From there it was a matter of steady play and few mistakes for Smith to hold onto the match.
Later in the day, Smith would win the first set against Austin Rapp of Palm Desert High, in the quarterfinals. But Rapp rebounded to win the match, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
In doubles, Bajpai and McCann also battled through a three-set match in the round of 16, holding off Kyle Loi and Scott Nguyen of Canyon High in Anaheim, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. But Bajpai and McCann would also fall later in the day, this time to Ricky Kurtz and Ryan Dugan of Santa Margarita High, who won the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.