Dunlap, Fleming claim singles crowns

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA -- At stake was the girls 16s singles championship in

the Costa Mesa Junior Tennis Classic, but Newport Beach’s Vanessa

Dunlap approached the title match Friday as a midsummer day with a

good friend at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Dunlap, a Newport Harbor High junior next month, defeated her

doubles partner, Newport Beach’s Diana Khoury, in the singles final,

6-4, 6-2, then teamed with Khoury to win the doubles title with a

6-3, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Bonnie Adams (Newport Harbor) and Jamie

Steele (Corona del Mar). It was the first time Dunlap and Khoury

played doubles together.

Newport Beach’s Jake Fleming, the top seed in the boys 14s

singles, rallied to defeat Irvine’s Silvio Chiba, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2,

in Friday’s championship match, winning the only other singles title

among Newport-Mesa players.

“I was kind of lackadaisical in the first set, but then in the

second set I started to be more aggressive,” said Fleming, who

jump-started the day’s action with an 8 a.m. first serve.

Three other area products reached the finals in their respective

singles divisions, but came up short of the crown.

In the boys 12s, Costa Mesa’s Charlie Alvarado, the top seed, lost

to nemesis Raymond Sarmiento of Los Angeles, 6-2, 6-3. Sarmiento also

defeated Alvarado in the semifinals of the War by the Shore Junior

Tennis Classic last week at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club.

In the girls 12s, top-seeded McCall Jones of Trabuco Canyon

knocked off Costa Mesa’s Nelly Radeva, 6-2, 6-0, while top-seeded Tom

McCullough of Pasadena beat Newport Beach’s Robert Khoury, 6-3, 6-1.

Radeva, a Kaiser sixth grader next month, reached a singles final

for the fourth time in her career at the Costa Mesa tournament. She

won the 10s as a 9-year-old and also lost in the 12s title match last

year.

“I played well, but I should’ve been more consistent,” Radeva said

of Friday’s 8 a.m. final against Jones. “She didn’t miss a lot and I

made most of the errors.”

In the boys 18s final, 14-year-old Robert Khoury was on the wrong

end of a huge momentum swing in the first set against McCullough.

With Khoury serving at 3-4 and 30-40, he called a baseline return by

McCullough out. But an umpire overruled it and awarded the game to

McCullough, whose inspired play thereafter carried him to the win.

“It was really tight in the first set,” Khoury said. “But I was

just destroyed after that call. I was so upset. The ball was clearly

out by two feet. I should’ve just played tennis, but I was too

distracted with the calls.”

Khoury, playing up in the 18s for only the second time, is a

5-foot-10, 150-pound right-hander with a big serve that has been

clocked at 115 mph in practice. He’s coached by his father, Buddy, a

former touring pro.

Khoury, who only started playing tennis three years ago, will be a

freshman at Newport Harbor in the fall and could be first-year boys

tennis coach Jeff Thomsen’s star for four years.

“I want to try to beat some of the top kids,” Khoury said of

playing up two age groups. “I don’t want to stay back. I want to

improve and get better every day.”

Newport Beach’s Jill Braverman was involved in the victorious

girls 14s doubles team.

Dunlap, coached by former touring pro Debbie Graham, said her

focus Friday was to have fun in her 16s singles final match against

high school teammate Diana Khoury, because they’re such good friends.

“My game was pretty consistent and that helped me the most,”

Dunlap said