Taking place at the beautiful Stanford Campus, the Zimmerman/Johnson USTA National Tournament is always special for our NorCal junior players. Excited to play at home for this well-established L2 national tournament, Team NorCal “was quite strong on our home turf,” Payton Young joked. Young was on point as 16 players reached the semifinals or better, and three earned Sportsmanship Awards.
Played September 14-16, 2018, the Zimmerman/Johnson USTA National Tournament hosted Boys’ and Girls’ age 12-18. The boys’ 12 had a great showing with Mason Nguyen of El Dorado Hills, CA, finishing fourth overall, and Mitchell Lee of Oakland, CA, taking third place. Mason gave it his all but fell to Rohan Belday of West Orange, NJ, 6-3; 6-2. Mason battled it out with fellow NorCal player Mitchell Lee in the playoff match, with the latter winning 6-3; 6-2. Mitchell fought hard in the semifinals but Nathan Blokhin of Plantation, FL, was unstoppable as the eventual winner, defeating Mitchell 6-4; 7-5. On the girls’ side, Anya Murphy of Fremont, CA, won two matches before being stopped in the semifinals by Paisha Douglas of Las Vegas, NV, 6-4; 6-4. Anya made her opponent, Thea Latak of Darien, IL, work for her third place, barely losing in three sets 6-7(2); 6-5; 6-3. A big congrats goes to Natasha Rajaram of Cupertino, CA, for winning the sportsmanship award.
In the boys’14 category, two NorCal players made it to the semifinals with Payton Young of Alamo, CA, who’s hitting the headlines yet again, and Ethan Quinn of Fresno, CA, debuting on the honor roll. After beating the No. 4 seed in the first round, Payton won another match before Yannik Rahman of Miami, FL, stopped him 6-4; 6-2. To add to an already fantastic tournament, Payton also won the sportsmanship award for the boys’ 14 category… way to go Payton! On his end of the draw, Ethan also beat a seed in the first round, and pushed the eventual winner, Kyle Kang of Fullerton, CA, to a third set, but fell 0-6; 6-3; 6-4. In the playoff match, the two friends faced each other, with Ethan coming out as the winner, 6-2; 6-2.
Zimmerman/Johnson USTA National Tournament – Stanford University, Boys’ 14. Picture on the left: Ethan Quinn and Payton Young. Picture in the middle: Tournament Director Phill Cello and Payton Young. Picture on the right: Ethan Quinn and Payton Young.
Now moving on to the boys’ 16 category where once again, NorCal showed up in big fashion. Team NorCal swept the draw with not one, two, three, but all four semifinalists coming from the NorCal section! Max Fardanesh of Albany, CA, was able to get passed all his friends, defeating Aryan Chaudhary of Santa Clara, CA, in a tough 6-3; 6-4 final. In the semifinal, Max had to overcome Luke Casper of Santa Cruz, CA, in a tough three set match, 7-5; 1-6; 6-2. On his end, Aryan also had a three set match to reach the finals, prevailing over Hugo Hashimoto of San Jose, CA, 3-6; 6-3; 6-1. Luke and Hugo faced each other in the playoff match, with Luke triumphing over Hugo 6-3; 6-2. Team NorCal didn’t have enough of sweeping the boys’ draw, so the girls joined the fun with three of the four semifinalists being from NorCal. India Houghton of Belvedere Tiburon, CA, continued her incredible year, conquering another very successful player, Allura Zamarripa of St. Helena, CA, 6-4; 6-4. India played another fellow NorCal player in the semifinal, when she battled passed Amber Marie Lee of Orinda, CA, in a fierce three-set match 7-6(5); 5-7; 6-1. India capped off her victory by winning the sportsmanship award in the girls’ 16, no doubt she’ll be hitting the headlines again. Amber had another tough three-set match in the playoff, losing 7-6(4); 5-7; 6-2 against Misa Malkin of Tucson, AZ.
Zimmerman/Johnson USTA National Tournament – Stanford University, BG16s. Picture on the left: Max Fardanesh. Picture in the middle: India Houghton and Allura Zamarripa. Picture on the right L-R: Luke Casper, Phil Cello, and Hugo Hashimoto. Picture on the far right: Max Fardanesh and Aryan Chaudhary.
Our final category is the boys’ and girls’ 18. Ryder Jackson of Nicasio, CA, advanced to the semifinals but couldn’t hold Siem Woldeab of La Mesa, CA, who went on to win the tournament. Ryder put up a great fight against Alejandro Quiles of Las Vegas, NV, pushing him to a third set with a final score of 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. Marcus McDaniel of Vacaville, CA, climbed one more step to reach the final match, but also fell victim of Siem Woldeab in a close three-set match 3-6; 6-3; 7-5. On the girls’ side, 15 years old Connie Ma of Dublin, CA, continues to impress has she takes on 18 years old players. Connie didn’t lose a set on her way to winning the title, easily beating Anessa Lee of San Marino, CA, 6-2; 6-1 in the finals. Connie wasn’t the only NorCal representative in the semifinals, as Ashley Yee of Los Gatos, CA, took on Anessa. Ashley came back strong in the second set but Anessa held her off for a 6-3; 7-6(3) victory. Ashley took third place by winning a close 6-4; 7-6(4) match against Lana Mavor of Yarmouth, ME.
Zimmerman/Johnson USTA National Tournament, Stanford University – Boys’ 18. Picture on the left: Marcus McDaniel. Picture on the right: L-R: Alejandro Quiles and Ryder Jackson.
In the words of Max Fardanesh “a very solid weekend for NorCal overall,” and indeed it was! Congratulations to all on defending the home turf with great pride, and as always go Team NorCal!
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