Six more titles in War by the Shore

Rick Devereux

The final day of competition at the 15th annual Balboa Bay Club

Racquet Club junior tennis tournament wrapped up Friday afternoon

with six Newport-Mesa area athletes winning their respective

divisions.

Joseph DiGiulio, a 9-year-old from Newport Beach, beat Costa

Mesa’s Charlie Corum, 6-4, 6-1, to win the boys 12s singles final.

Corum did not go away empty-handed, however, because he and

Newport Beach’s Connor Curry won the boys 12s doubles final, beating

Trevor Dell and Brandon Mitchell, 6-2, 6-3.

“It felt good to win,” Curry said after winning the doubles title.

“We had confidence and all the skills going into the match.”

Corum said Curry brought control to the tandem, while Curry said

Corum brought power.

“I’m the guy that yanks him away from the umpire,” Curry said.

In the girls 12s doubles final, Newport Beach resident Melissa

Matsuoka and Laguna Beach’s Hayley Miller finished first by beating

No. 2 seed Lok Sze Leung and Hei Tung Nicole Tsui, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Cierra Gaytan-Leach, a 12-year-old who was unseeded, won the girls

14s singles title by beating the No. 5 seed, April Bisharat, 6-4,

6-2. Gaytan-Leach will be an eighth-grader at Corona del Mar Junior

High in the fall.

On her way to the championship, Gaytan-Leach eliminated the No. 2,

3 and 6 seeds before taking out Bisharat.

Corona del Mar High sophomore-to-be Jillian Braverman, the No. 2

seed, beat Kristy Fournell, 7-5, 6-1, in the girls 18s singles.

Braverman, 14, who won the girls 16s title in the War by the Shore

last year, said she liked playing against older players.

“I play better against older players because I feel they are the

ones with all the pressure because they are the ones who are supposed

to win,” Braverman said. “There is less pressure on me than when I

play someone younger or my own age.”

War by the Shore tournament director Bob Ogle said handling

pressure is important in order to perform well and advance to the

finals.

“It is mostly mental to stay on top of your game,” Ogle said. “If

you have a brain letdown, that’s when you start giving up unforced

errors.”

Ogle also said that to get to the final round, players must be

able to adapt to the person he or she is playing against.

“Every opponent is different,” he said. “It’s like a chess match.

You have to do anything within the rules to get your opponent out of

their game to give yourself the advantage.”

Ogle said some kids think hitting the ball hard every time is the

way to gain the advantage.

“It’s like in baseball,” he said. “Not every pitch is a home run

pitch. You’ve got to set yourself up for the home run pitch. You

can’t swing for the fences every time.”