Kimi Basamakov’s arm announced his arrival at Westlake High before he ever played a match.
In the fall of 2022, Westlake tennis coach Scott Yasgoor was set to meet with an exciting incoming freshman at the campus courts. The talk of local youth tennis, Basamakov had finished runner-up at the prestigious Easter Bowl tournament at Indian Wells as a 12-year-old.
Then entering his fifth year as head coach of the program, Yasgoor parked his car beside campus and began crossing the street when a sudden noise stopped him in his tracks.
It was the telltale pop of a racket striking a tennis ball with power — real power.
“I am like, ‘Who the hell hits a ball like that?’ ” Yasgoor said, recalling the moment. “Right away, I could tell he was different.”
The sound became a constant echo at Westlake’s tennis facility over the next four years as the Warriors star racked up wins and climbed to the apex of the Ventura County tennis ranks.
The 2026 Marmonte League Most Valuable Player won the third league singles title of his high school career this spring, finishing the season with a 44-2 record. Basamakov led the Warriors to a CIF-Southern Section Division 4 championship appearance as a team, and battled into the second round of the CIF-SS individual draw.
Basamakov finishes his high school career as The Star’s 2026 Boys Tennis Player of the Year.
“It is a great culmination to my high school career,” Basamakov said. “It was amazing to come back for senior year and continue the same success.”
After winning the league crown in his freshman and sophomore seasons, Basamakov opted to spend his junior year away from the sport, focusing on his academics. He will attend Duke University in the fall, where he plans to study math and economics.
“I felt back at home, straight away,” Basamakov said of his return to the court. “It was extra motivation to say, ‘Hey, I have been pretty dominant the first few seasons. I want to continue that.’ It forced me to work a little bit harder.”
Basamakov has a monster serve, defensive acumen, great touch and “the best set of hands I have seen on a high school player,” Yasgoor said. Even with all those tools, his greatest on-court weapon may be his intellect.
“You can just see his brain is firing at a different level, and that translates to tennis,” Yasgoor said. “The geometry of the court, the mindset, the confidence you have in yourself and the game — that turns into wins. It’s a pretty straightforward approach. It’s something you can’t teach. You either have that, or you don’t.”
For Basamakov, that means finding creative angles within the confines of the court, understanding the physics behind different shots and even studying the different probabilities that exist within an opponent’s game.
It’s all a part of the way his approach to tennis mirrors his gifts in the classroom.
“I am very pattern-focused. Not just where to hit the ball, what to do, but also, I notice patterns in what types of mistakes my opponent is making. What type of shots and direction is he moving?” Basamakov said. “Let me hit my strength to their weakness.”
Basamakov didn’t just survive a murderer’s row of future collegiate tennis players in the Marmonte League, he dominated. The senior never lost a set in league action.
In the league championship singles draw, he beat Agoura ace Chris Kasparian, 6-4, 6-1, in the quarterfinals before surviving a challenge from Newbury Park’s Jesse Tang, 7-5, 6-3, in the semifinals. He defeated Thousand Oaks’ Aidan Mueller, 6-3, 6-4, to win the title.
“He was just on a different level,” Yasgoor said.
Though he starred in individual play, Basamakov said he found the most fulfillment in the team’s success this season. He was undefeated in CIF-SS team play as the Warriors battled all the way to a 10-8 loss to Dos Pueblos in the Division 4 championship.
The focus on team success, rather than just his own game, revitalized Basamakov’s love for the game.
“It was something very new,” Basamakov said. “It was this whole new dynamic where, if I win my set, great, job is done. But now I have 15 other sets where I can go and support. I can see and encourage and advise my teammates and actually, at some point or another, be a contributor to their victories as well.”
Yasgoor said he anticipates he will see the ripple effect of Basamakov’s leadership within the program for years to come.
“You watch it unfold and it puts a smile on your face,” Yasgoor said. “Here is a kid who gets it, who is giving back. He doesn’t have to be out there playing high school tennis — most of these top players don’t — but he couldn’t wait to be a part of the team.”
The Star’s All-County Boys Tennis Second Team
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Kimi Basamakov is The Star’s Boys Tennis Player of the Year
Reporting by Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star | USA TODAY Network
