Hibbard shines on day 1 of tennis tournament

Watching Calvin Hibbard play tennis on Friday went to a different level when the topseeded singles player from Tehachapi started hitting highlight-reel shots.

The Warriors’ junior drew a crowd, the most vocal of whom were other players, bringing them to life on Court 1 with a variety of dazzling between-the-leg shots, overhead smashes and crosscourt winners.

When all was said and done, Hibbard had earned a spot in the quarterfinals at the two-day South Area qualifying tournament at

Stockdale with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over West High’s Alfredo Flores.

“It was fun,” Hibbard said. “The guy I was playing is really good. He was running me all over the place. The shots he was hitting … He was lobbing the ball and it kind of made it easy to take shots like that. It looks like I’m trying to show off, but that’s just kind of how I’ve been practicing (returning the lob).”

Not a bad showing for someone who missed six months of training and part of the season after dropping a bench vice on his hand in August.

“I didn’t play any preseason matches because of the injury and went straight into league play,” said Hibbard, whose hand was in a cast for several weeks.

Although he looked in prime form on Friday, Hibbard says he’s still working himself into shape and using the Area tournament to get more reps as he hopes to improve on last year’s loss in the section quarterfinals.

“I feel like I’m playing pretty good,” Hibbard said. “My serve has improved a lot, but I feel like my groundstrokes were better last year.”

On Saturday in singles play, top-seeded Hibbard cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 8 Nathan Oesch of BHS to reach his second-straight section tournament, to be played in San Luis Obispo. He lost in the quarterfinals last year.

Hibbard will be joined by three others playing in their first section tournament. No. 2 Cade Hiebert from Bakersfield Christian defeated No. 7 Rafael Pantoja, 6-0, 6-2, with teammate David Hair, the No. 6 seed, upsetting No. 3 Clayton Villarreal of Frontier, 6-2, 6-2.

Stockdale’s Andrej Dojcinovski, who lost in the qualifying match in doubles play last year, qualified in singles with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Independence’s Crismay Alvarez.