Arthur Karagezian has been nothing short of dominating the past two seasons for the Burbank High tennis team.
Along with winning the Pacific League singles championship in 2008, Karagezian captured his second-straight title this past season as a junior.
He was able to slice through the league with relative ease, as his booming serve and solid return made it difficult for opponents to win games off of him.
It is because of his accomplishments that Karagezian has been named the 2009 All-Area Singles Player of the Year by the writers and editors of the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-Press and La Cañada Sun.
It is his second consecutive All-Area singles title.
Karagezian was easily the favorite to win his third consecutive crown next season in his senior campaign. No Burbank player has captured three straight singles championships since Haig Kassabian accomplished the feat in 2004.
However, it appears Karagezian will not be returning to Burbank to defend his title.
Bulldogs Coach Loi Phan confirmed that Karagezian has decided to be home-schooled and will be concentrating to his tournament play.
“It’s a tough decision, but it was something that he wanted to do,” Phan said. “We talked about what he wanted to do and he felt like this was the best thing for him.
“I’ve talked to some of the coaches in our league and they were looking forward to seeing Arthur play next season. I was just hoping he would stick around and take the college rout.”
Karagezian experienced academic problems last year. He became academically ineligible at the end of the tennis season and wasn’t able to take part in the Southern Section Individual Tournament.
“In Arthur’s last set of our playoff match, I told him to go out and play well in his final high school game,” Phan said. “And he won.”
Karagezian put together a 47-0 record in 2009 and had a mark of 91-1 the past two seasons. He helped Burbank place third in the Pacific League.
In the league championship match, the top-seeded Karagezian picked up a 6-0, 6-2 win against second-seeded Travis Tu of Arcadia in a match that took 43 minutes. Earlier, Karagezian notched a 6-0, 6-1 semifinal victory against fifth-seeded Dro Mahmoudi of Crescenta Valley.
“I focused on holding serve and making [Tu] hit errors,” Karagezian said after winning the title. “It feels great. I had a good practice [the day before], and I showed consistency from the baseline.”
