Tennis: Flaming-hot Fleming grabs Costa Mesa Junior Open title

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA - The tennis world just now might be hearing about

Newport Beach’s Jake Fleming, but he could be making quite a racket for a

long time.

Fleming captured his second straight singles tournament championship

Friday in the ninth annual Costa Mesa Junior Open Summer Classic at Costa

Mesa Tennis Center.

But most of his peers in the boys 12s will probably be glad to see

Fleming move up.

“This is my last time playing 12s in a tournament,” Fleming said,

following his 6-1, 6-3 win over Irvine’s Danny Desatnik.

Prior to the tournament, Fleming, who doesn’t turn 13 until Oct. 12,

won the War by the Shore Junior Tennis Classic in the boys 14s at the

Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club.

Fleming, ranked fifth in Southern California in the 12s, did not lose

a set in the Costa Mesa Open. He also defeated Desatnik for the third

time this year.

Fleming, who takes lessons under Rance Brown at the Newport Beach

Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club, will attend Ensign Intermediate School in

the fall as a seventh grader and eventually Newport Harbor High.

In the other singles final involving a Newport-Mesa player,

second-seeded Nelly Radeva of Costa Mesa lost to fourth-seeded Carissa

Aboubakare of Orange in the girls 12s title match, 6-2, 6-1.

Radeva, who doesn’t turn 11 until Nov. 13, played up a level in the

12s for the first time and also faced Aboubakare for the first time.

“It’s good I reached the finals playing in the 12s for the first time

in a tournament, but I also wanted to win,” said Radeva, whose big

victory came in the quarterfinals, when she defeated Thein Nguyen of Long

Beach, 6-3, 6-3, for the first time in three tries this year.

In the girls 16s doubles final, Newport Beach’s Bonnie Adams and Costa

Mesa’s Krista McIntosh defeated Jamison Steele (Newport Beach) and

Jessica Langer (Irvine), 1-6, 6-1, 6-1.

In the second set, Adams began to poach more, giving her plenty of

opportunities for winners down the middle against Steele-Langer.

“I think that helped a lot, and we were playing very aggressive,” said

Adams, who will be a Newport Harbor sophomore in the fall.

Adams, whose older sister, Audra, and mother, Dorsey, are both doubles

standouts, said her team kept the momentum in the third set.

“They were frustrated and not as animated,” Adams said of

Steele-Langer.

“We were really slow at first (in the opening set), but with Bonnie

yelling a lot, it kind of started pumping me up,” said McIntosh, a junior

next month at Newport Harbor.

Steele, who will be a freshman at Corona del Mar High, said everything

went her team’s way in the first set, then McIntosh-Adams “took shots

away” to ignite their second-set rally.

Langer, who attends University High, said she “stopped being as

aggressive (after the first set). I think we let them back in the match,

too, and I didn’t take control of the middle of the court.”

Steele usually plays doubles with Sarah Fansler, whose twisted ankle

kept her sidelined this week.

“I’m totally used to winning and losing,” Steele said. “Each match is

a good experience, and Bonnie and Krista are a great team. It was fun to

play with them.”