Pura Makes Doubles Final at Clay Court Nationals

Palisadian TJ Pura paired with Greg Garcia of Poway to reach the Boys 16s doubles final at the USTA National Clay Court Championships on Saturday afternoon in Delray Beach, Florida. 

Pura and Garcia were awarded the No. 1 and thus received a bye in the first-round, moving them into the round of 64. They proceeded to surrender only one set in their next five matches to produce a championship showdown against No. 2-seeded Yale Goldberg of Ohio and Ronnie Schneider of Indiana, who prevailed 6-4, 7-5.

The Southern California duo beat Christopher Barrus of New Jersey and Christian Lutschaunig of Pennsylvania, 6-1, 6-4, in the round of 64; beat Oliver Landert and Josh Wardell, 6-3, 6-2 in the round of 32; beat Hahn and Yablon, 6-0, 6-2, in the round of 16; beat No. 8-seeded Nicholas Crystal and Samuel Lam of New York, 6-4, 2-6, 10-8 in the quarterfinals; and beat sixth-seeded Daniel Kerznerman of New York and Stefan Kozlov of Florida, 6-1, 6-0, in the semifinals. 

Pura was also seeded second in singles, but after winning his first match, 6-1, 7-6, over Kyle Dunn of Wisconsin, he was upset by unseeded Tyler Lu of Irvine, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, in the round of 64. He then won two matches in the consolation bracket before having to retire in the second set against Anton Zykov of Virginia. 

The top player at Brentwood School, where he will begin his junior year in the fall, Pura reached the finals of the CIF Southern Section Individual tournament in May and won the 16s singles title at the USTA Winter National Championships in January in Scottsdale, Arizona.  

Robbie Bellamy also played the 16s at the Clay Court Championships, where he was seeded 14th in singles and third in doubles. He was upset in his second-round singles match, 6-4, 6-1, by Florida's Alexandru Gozun, but proceeded to win five rounds in the back draw, all in straight sets, before falling to No. 17 Quentin Monaghan of New Jersey, 7-6, 6-1. 

In doubles, Bellamy partnered with George Goldhoff of Woodlands, Texas, to beat Philip Antohi of New York and Zachary Niklaus of Connecticut in the round of 64, then lost to Ivan Kravtchenko of Sunnyvale and Daniel Morkovine of San Carlos, 7-5, 4-6, 10-6, in the round of 32.   

As a sophomore playing on the Palisades High team in the spring, Bellamy led the Dolphins to their third consecutive City Section championship. Last week, he won all eight of his matches as SoCal took first place at the USTA's Intersectional Team Championships in Shreveport, Louisiana.