Los Alamitos junior Riley Smith, the son of USC men’s tennis coach Peter Smith, lived up to the hype of being one of the top contenders for the CIF Boys Singles championship by winning his first- and second-round matches at the 115th Ojai Tennis Tournament on Thursday.
Smith blanked Max Prestwich of Nordhoff, 6-0, 6-0, before throttling Canyon High’s Lyndon Bui, 6-0, 6-2.
Corona del Mar’s Bjorn Hoffmann, opened with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Loyola’s Derek Vincent. Rain suspended Hoffmann’s second-round match until Friday, the same day Hoffmann’s father, Carsten, begins competing in the Men’s Open Doubles tournament.
Fullerton’s Eddie Gutierrez won twice Thursday and earned a berth in Friday’s Round of 16. Gutierrez dropped a combined four games in routing Valentin Poiset of Canyon Crest Academy and Servite’s Richard Han in succession.
Newport Harbor senior Reese Stalder, who has committed to TCU, passed up the opportunity to be one of the favorites in the Boys’ CIF Singles draw in order to prepare himself for college tennis by playing in the Men’s Open Singles draw. Stalder rallied to win his first-round match against Dmitry Dzyuba of Castro Valley, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-4, before losing to top-seeded Philip Bester of British Columbia (Canada), 6-1, 6-2.
The girls and boys high school division titles will be decided Saturday.
Founded in 1896 by William Thacher, The Ojai is North America’s longest-running amateur tennis tournament at the same site. The Ojai features more than 1,500 competitors across 29 separate divisions.
