Corona del Mar senior Bjorn Hoffmann advanced to the third and final day of the prestigious Ojai Tournament with a pair of victories Friday, and he is the only O.C. representative still alive in the boys CIF singles bracket.
Hoffmann will battle fellow highly ranked senior Billy Rowe of Coronado at 8 a.m. on Saturday in the semifinals at Ojai’s Libbey Park. The winner will square in the final off against the winner of the Cody Lin (Westlake)-Connor Hance (Peninsula) semifinal.
The singles championship is slated to begin at 2 p.m. at Libbey Park.
Hoffmann, the tournament runner-up last year, topped Siem Woldeab of Helix of La Mesa, 6-1, 6-4, in the round of 16, setting up what CdM coach Jamie Gresh referred to as a “heavyweight match” against top-seeded Jacob Brumm of Torrey Pines in the quarters.
Down 4-1 in the first set, Hoffmann battled back to square things up at 5-5 before claiming a 7-5 result.
The Sea Kings star carried that momentum into the second set, earning his spot in the semis with a 6-2 win.
“Super tough, A-plus composure and mental toughness from him today,” Gresh said of Hoffmann. “He worked point by point, basically shifted the momentum back and kind of played better on the big points.”
Hoffmann was the runner-up in the singles bracket last year, losing in the finale to Michael Genender of Harvard-Westlake of Studio City.
Marina’s Max Cancilla was forced to retire Friday after a game into his quarterfinal match with Lin due to injury.
On the doubles side, University, Corona del Mar, Beckman, Woodbridge and Canyon all had tandems reach the quarters, but each went down in straight sets.
Contact the writer: kocnnolly@ocregister.com
