Burbank Boys Tennis Beats Burroughs 12-6 in Season Finale

Burbank High boys tennis closed its regular season Thursday with a 12-6 road win over rival Burroughs, locking up third place in the Pacific League.

The story of the afternoon belonged to a freshman who stands 4-foot-10 and wears a size four shoe. Emil Lazaryev collected two singles wins against Burroughs, and he did it the hard way, fighting through every game against players who almost certainly looked at his slight frame and felt good about their chances. They were wrong.

“Some people underestimate me because I am short but I don’t let it get to me,” Lazaryev told reporters, adding that he has been playing tennis since he was four years old. Ten years of court time will do that for your confidence.

Lazaryev’s closest call came against Burroughs No. 1 Jaden Chapman, who proved to be the toughest player on the court all afternoon. Chapman swept his three singles matchups, beating Burbank No. 1 Apollo Harbaugh 6-2, taking Lazaryev 6-4, and blanking Hayk Tsaturyan 6-0. No Burbank player got closer to Chapman than Lazaryev’s four games in that second set. Consider that for a second. The freshman fighting a 4-foot-10 frame against the top singles player in the rivalry match, and he pushed him hardest.

Outside of Chapman, Burbank’s singles players took care of business. Harbaugh rolled Burroughs No. 2 Dominic Carlebach 6-0, and Lazaryev beat Carlebach by the same score. Tsaturyan added a 6-2 win over Carlebach to round out the No. 2 slot in the lineup. Against the Burroughs No. 3 position, Harbaugh dropped a 6-2 decision to Adi Kiran, but Lazaryev answered with a 6-0 shutout over Cody Baer, and Tsaturyan beat Baer 6-1.

Doubles sealed it.

Burbank’s three doubles teams combined for seven wins in nine sets, and the match results show how deep this Bulldogs squad runs. The No. 1 team of Harutyun Kelikyan and Rithun Gopalakrishnan went 2-1, beating Burroughs’ Nolan Jennings and Isaac Ayala 6-2 and taking the No. 3 team of Jack Wardlaw and Ian Robertson 6-1. Their lone loss was a 6-4 setback to Nick Deville and Iulian Lundburg.

The No. 2 pairing of Quilan Cramer and Michael Fan didn’t drop a set all afternoon. Cramer and Fan shut out substitute Andre Barraza-Franco and Ayala 6-0, handled Deville and Lundburg 6-4, and beat Wardlaw and Robertson 6-1. That’s a clean sweep against three different pairings.

Burbank’s No. 3 doubles team of Alec Safarian and Monte Gharibian also went 2-1. They shut out Jennings and Ayala 6-0 and beat Wardlaw and Robertson 6-0 before dropping a 7-5 set to Deville and Lundburg. Deville and Lundburg were clearly the toughest doubles pairing Burroughs put on the court, going 2-1 against Burbank’s three teams.

Here’s the rivalry standing now.

Burbank finishes third in the Pacific League. Burroughs ends fourth. That gap matters when Pacific League seeding gets sorted out heading into the postseason bracket, and Burbank’s singles depth will get tested in whatever configuration the CIF Southern Section boys tennis playoff bracket throws at them.

The Chapman factor is worth watching closely if Burroughs advances. He proved on Thursday that he can beat any Burbank singles player put in front of him, going a perfect 3-0 while giving up only six total games across those three sets. That kind of top-of-the-lineup dominance can carry a team a long way in a CIF draw.

For Burbank, the depth is real. Seven doubles wins in nine sets signals a program that can compete on all three doubles lines simultaneously, not just with one strong pair carrying the others. Kelikyan and Gopalakrishnan, Cramer and Fan, Safarian and Gharibian all contributed meaningful wins on a day when the Bulldogs needed a full roster effort to secure the result.

Lazaryev gives Burbank a potential weapon to build around for the next three years. A freshman who plays with that competitive edge against older players, coming off a background of a decade of tennis at age 14, is exactly the kind of player who can quietly become a Pacific League force before most opponents figure out they should take him seriously. He’s already warning them himself. They just aren’t listening yet.