After Several Hairy Years, Sassoon Is Making the Cut Again

Golan Sassoon could have quit tennis for good this year.

The way the Encino resident tells it, he made no progress over the past five years in the sport he loves.

And as winter gave way to spring this year, he said tennis had done more harm than good.

Sassoon was declared academically ineligible for most of the tennis season at Taft High. The Toreadors were counting on Sassoon and senior Dylan Mann to lead them to the City Section final for the third year in a row.

It didn’t happen, partly because Sassoon was trying to find the lightning that left his racket when he was 12.

“I was either playing tennis or working out,� Sassoon said. “I was not at all into studying.�

Sassoon said he will be back next year for his senior season, a lesson learned.

“I thought I let my team down,� he said. “This is teamwork and everybody’s got to do their part.

“It’s never going to happen again.�

Sassoon rededicated himself to school. He also stuck with tennis, and the lightning has returned.

The tall right-hander stunned San Diego’s Trent Miller in a Studio City juniors tournament two weeks ago.

How big of an upset was it? Miller is ranked No. 3 in the Southern California boys’ 18-and-under division. Sassoon, a first-year player in 18s, entered the tournament ranked 67th. Last year, he didn’t crack the top 153 in the 16-and-under division.

And yet here was Sassoon overcoming a 4-0 deficit in the first set to win, 7-5, and later blowing a 5-0 lead in the third set but hanging on to win, 6-4.

“I was all mental,� Sassoon said, calling it his biggest victory ever. “I learned that I was much better than I thought. [Miller] has much more experience. He’s been playing national tournaments.�

But Sassoon doesn’t think it was a fluke, and his performance in this week’s Southern California Junior Sectional Championships might support his claim.

Playing in the biggest junior tournament in the United States against the best competition in the region at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley, Sassoon breezed through four qualifying matches. He beat No. 25 Robert Ortiz and Harvard-Westlake’s Farbod Nasseri in the final two rounds before losing, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, to former City Section champion Robert Williams in first round of the main draw.

In doubles, Sassoon and Andy Roland of Hollywood upset seventh-seeded Jeff Riba and Michael Rodrigues of San Diego, 6-2, 6-4, before falling to top-seeded Miller and Scott Kintz, also of San Diego, in the quarterfinals.

“I always took [tennis] seriously, but my confidence wasn’t there,� Sassoon said. “I think this will bring me to the top 25 and I’ll do better in tournaments now.�

Thus ending a long drought since he was No. 9 in boys’ 12s.

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If top-seeded Darian Chappell of Camarillo and her partner, Jonni Seymour of Bakersfield, win Sunday’s 2 p.m. doubles final in the Southern California junior championships, perhaps they should go for No. 1 in the women’s open division.

Chappell and Seymour gave the No. 1 team, Tracey Johnstone and Lisa Seeman, a scare at an open tournament.

After a 7-5, 6-4 victory, Johnstone and Seeman said they had not broken a sweat against the rest of the competition and complimented Chappell and Seymour, both 17.

“I thought that was the best match we ever played,� Chappell said. “They are so tough, but we were aggressive. When we get to the net, we can usually close a point.�

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Deborah Pepkowitz of Calabasas says she has a bad birthday: Dec. 22.

Had she been born 10 days later, she would have been eligible for another year of junior tennis. As it is, Pepkowitz, 17, saved the best for last.

It didn’t start that way.

After three consecutive years ranked in the top 30, she was buried in the 40s when she entered the Southern Californa junior championships last week.

Then, much like Sassoon in boys’ 18s, she surged.

Pepkowitz battled through qualifying then, in a stroke of good fortune, she drew Mai Nguyen of Santa Ana in the first round of the main draw and won, 6-1, 6-0.

Her would-be first-round opponent, No. 3 Brandis Braverman of Encino, withdrew with an injury.

“I played real good this whole tournament,� said Pepkowitz, who was eliminated in Thursday’s second round. “I played so well in qualifying. I beat everybody pretty easily.�

Her victory over Nguyen was the first for Pepkowitz in the main draw of a sectional championship tournament. The Calabasas High senior hopes to garner a college scholarship offer.