Photo courtesy of Bud Kling
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Palisades Charter High School tennis players Lorenzo Brunkow and Neel Joshi won the Boys’ 18 & Under doubles title at the Level 4 WAC Junior Fall Open last weekend in Westlake Village—winning three pro sets as the No. 3 seed in the eight-team draw.
First, they knocked off Palisadian Braun Levi and his Loyola High teammate Cooper Schwartz 8-6 in the quarterfinals. Then, the Dolphins’ duo upset top-seeded David Adamson and Robert Yang from San Diego 8-2. In the finals, they led 3-1 when No. 2-seeded Caden and Tyler Lee of Tustin retired because of an injury.
Brunkow was also seeded third in the 50-player singles draw and won all five of his matches on his way to the championship. After a first-round bye, he defeated Alex Croitoru of Irvine 6-0, 6-1; in the round of 16 he beat Christian Stubbleman of Encino 6-2, 6-2; in the quarterfinals he edged the fifth-seeded Adamson, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (3); in the semifinals he beat the No. 2-seeded Yang 6-0, 6-2; then, in the finals, Brunkow upset top-seeded Robert Freedman of San Diego 6-3, 6-2.
Joshi got a first-round bye, then outlasted Carlsbad’s Blake Bothmer in a super tiebreaker 3-6, 6-4, 10-4 before falling to seventh-seeded Amrith Kodumuri of Burbank, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Levi won his first-round match against Murrieta’s Owen Pearson, 6-2, 6-2, then fell 6-2, 6-4 in the round of 32 to Kodumuri.
Joshi reached the Boys 16s semifinals in singles at the Ojai Tournament last spring and won the City Individual singles crown as a sophomore, beating teammate Jex Frankel 6-4, 6-4 in the final.
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