The Hot Ticket

It's go time today for the Corona del Mar High boys' tennis doubles teams of Fabian Matthews and Dustin Hladek, and Parker Rhodes and Josh Kim.

Each team begins Round of 16 play at the CIF Southern Section Individual Tournament at noon at the Seal Beach Tennis Center.

"It'll be fun," Sea Kings Coach Tim Mang said. "If my guys are ready, we'll be fine."

Matthews and Hladek, a junior and senior, respectively, are the defending CIF Southern Section champions and winners of this year's Ojai Valley Tournament CIF Division. They should be the No. 1 seed but this time, they won't play the Santa Barbara team of Chris Ho and Billy Grokenberger, who are a familiar opponent.

Matthews and Hladek beat Ho and Grokenberger in last year's CIF championship match, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and again at this year's Ojai, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.

Both Santa Barbara players have qualified for CIF Individuals, but with different teammates. Ho teams with the Dons' Mike Williams, while Grokenberger is paired with Mike Grant.

Other prominent teams include the Peninsula pairings of Michael Aston and Jordan Rees, and Tyler Bowman and Jon Kazarian. Troy's Brian Fang and Jeff Kamei should also be tough, as well as the Dana Hills teams of Warren Hardie and Mark Bloom, and Evan Bolles and Taylor Stephen.

"Ojai, there were really only two interesting matches," Mang said. "[CIF] will be much more interesting than Ojai."

As for Rhodes, a sophomore, and Kim, a senior, they have only played doubles together a handful of times. Still, Mang said he thinks they can also go far. They swept through two matches on May 18 at the CIF regional at Costa Mesa Tennis Center to qualify.

Playing with Brent Pham, Rhodes also beat Aston and Rees during CdM's CIF Southern Section Division I quarterfinal match against Peninsula, 6-4, on May 15.

The CIF Individuals Round of 16 and quarterfinal matches begin today at noon in Seal Beach. The semifinals are Saturday at 11:30 a.m., with the championship match to follow.

— Matt Szabo