Altamirano makes history with boys 18 national title

   Collin Altamirano made history today and gave Northern California its second boys national champion in two days.
   The Yuba City resident became the first unseeded player to win the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in the tournament's 71-year history.
   Altamirano beat 14th-seeded Jared Donaldson of Cumberland, R.I., 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in the best-of-five-set final in Kalamazoo, Mich., one day after Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento won the boys 12 singles title in Little Rock, Ark.
   “I’ve got to root for all the seeds now,” Altamirano jokingly told reporters.
   Altamirano and Brooksby train at Arden Hills, the former home of Olympic swimming champions Mark Spitz and Debbie Meyer, in Sacramento.
   By winning the 18s title, Altamirano earned a wild card into the main draw of the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 26 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.   “I don’t care (who I play) -- I’m just happy to be there,” Altamirano said as the song “New York, New York” blared at Kalamazoo College’s Stowe Stadium.
   While Altamirano served for the match at 5-4, the wild card “crossed my mind,” he said. “I started laughing. I was like, ‘All right, let’s not choke this, Collin.’ I remember I missed that backhand into the net, and I was like, ‘Not a good start.’
   "Thankfully, I had a couple free points in there. I know this tournament is tough, and to win it is huge.”
   Boys 16 final -- Third-seeded Tommy Paul of Coconut Creek, Fla., beat fourth-seeded Jake DeVine of Los Altos Hills in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-3, 6-1 for the title in Kalamazoo.
    DeVine had crushed top-seeded Sameer Kumar of Carmel, Ind., 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals.