Di Giulio surprised in SoCal 10s final

Chris Yemma

Ten-year-old Joseph Di Giulio has a flair for the dramatic.

Last year at this time, it won him a boys 10s title at the Southern California Tennis Association junior sectional

championships.

This time around, however, opponent Stefan Menichella got the best

of him.

Di Giulio, a Newport Coast resident who practices at Palisades

Tennis Club in Newport Beach, lost to the Santa Barbara resident,

6-2, 2-6, 3-6, in the boys 10s final of the 103rd SCTA junior

sectional championships Saturday at the Los Caballeros Racquet and

Sports Club.

“I didn’t play that consistent,” said top-seeded Di Giulio, ranked

No. 14 in Southern California boys 12s by the SCTA. “I tried to stay

in it and come back [in the final set].”

The youngster, who regularly plays adults at Palisades, took the

first match, and it appeared as if he was going to keep his

tournament sweep streak alive. He hadn’t lost a set prior to

Saturday.

But third-seeded Menichella, ranked No. 28 in SCTA boys 12s,

jumped out to a 2-0 second-set lead and held on to win, 6-2.

Di Giulio came out strong in the third set and forged a 2-0 lead,

but his opponent won six of the last seven games to claim the

championship.

“It’s amazing,” said Menichella, also 10. “I feel so overwhelmed

that I was able to get through it. I didn’t think it would be that

dramatic.”

If history proved anything, though, Di Giulio’s second straight

title match in this tournament would be dramatic.

After losing his first set in last year’s final, 6-4, when he had

been up, 4-0, Di Giulio rallied to win, even after being down, 5-3,

in the second set.

He won that match, 4-6, 7-6 (7-0), 6-1, to become No. 1 in SCTA

boys 10s.

Saturday’s final was quite the opposite. Di Giulio cruised to a

first-set victory but Menichella rallied for the next two sets.

“[Menichella] played it tough,” said Di Giulio’s father, Paul.

“And Joseph didn’t close out any of the close games. He just missed

in the close ones.”

A soon-to-be fifth grader at St. Catherine’s School in Laguna

Beach, Di Giulio won 14 SCTA tournaments in 2004 -- six in the boys

10s and eight in the 12s. After winning last year’s boys 10s junior

sectional championship, he made the leap to boys 12s for good.

These SCTA junior sectional championships marked the only

tournament he has competed in boys 10s this year. He would have been

the No. 3 seed in boys 12s, said his mother, April.

He is ranked No. 65 in boys 12s nationally by United States Tennis

Association.

To say the least, it was an enormous victory for Menichella.

“I had heard about [Di Giulio] and I’d seen him play before,”

Menichella said. “I knew it was going to be a tough match coming into

it.”

And the position the Santa Barbara resident was in after losing

the first set reinforced that fact.

“I wasn’t all that confident [after losing the first set],”

Menichella said. “But I was able to rebuild my confidence to win.”

Di Giulio has won numerous tournaments leading up to the SCTA

junior sectional championships, including boys 12s titles at the San

Diego junior tournament and the 54th Gene Jung Whittier midwinter

tournament, both in January.

Nearly three years ago, he entered his first tournament at Anaheim

Hills at age 7, and was victorious.

And Di Giulio hasn’t looked back since.