SOUTH EL MONTE – Fullerton’s Eddie Gutierrez is in a new world right now.
The junior moved from Mexico only a semester ago, but he has already managed to make a lot of noise in Orange County high school boys tennis.
He raced to the Freeway League championship and qualified for the CIF-SS Individual Regionals. Still, each step Gutierrez takes on his path presents a new and exciting challenge.
“When they told me that I was going to play CIF, I didn’t even know what that was,” Gutierrez said with a laugh.
Three wins later, Gutierrez finds himself in the round of 16 in the CIF-SS Individual Tennis Regionals. He defeated Josh Quijano of Chaminade of West Hills, 7-5, 7-5, on Thursday at the Whittier Narrows Tennis Center.
The tournament continues Friday with singles and doubles play resuming at 11 a.m. at Seal Beach Tennis Center.
The match was a grind for Gutierrez. He fired an array of powerful forehands toward his opponent, but Quijano managed to extend the rallies.
“It’s tough to play against those types of players,” Gutierrez said. “I have to learn to control myself a little bit more and just be more patient.”
Orange County made a splash in doubles with a pair of teams advancing. Fountain Valley’s Parker Braverman and Darrin Nguyen defeated Angelo Mollo and David Washington of Damien of La Verne, 6-3, 6-2.
“They are on top of the world right now. They are so happy,” Barons coach Harshul Patel said of his doubles team. “They want to go out with playing good tennis and not worrying about the result.”
Canyon’s Kyle Lo and Scott Nguyen defeated Tim Lee and Walter Su of J.W. North of Riverside, 6-4, 6-1.
In singles, Servite’s Tanner Smith fell to Kento Perera of San Marcos of Santa Barbara, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
Perera notified officials after the match that he would be leaving today for Japan and would be unable to play in the round of 16. Tournament officials gave Perera’s spot to Smith instead of leaving the default in the singles draw.
Crean Lutheran’s Justin Zhang dropped his match with Garrett Mak of La Salle of Pasadena, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.