COSTA MESA SUMMER JUNIOR CLASSIC:No trouble for Ghassemi, Pattugalan

COSTA MESA — The contest started four hours before Neda Ghassemi and her doubles partner Courtney Pattugalan even hit the tennis court.

Instead of helping one another out Thursday afternoon, the teenagers squared off against each other during a board game.

Now that can cause trouble.

But there would be no conflict between the two because they played “Trouble,” the board game.

The game allowed Ghassemi, a Corona del Mar resident, and Pattugalan to relax and forget about the upcoming real competition.

Pattugalan said she needed something to calm her down before facing two former schoolmates in the 16-year-old girls’ semifinals of the 15th annual Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic.

It paid off once they reached the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Just like a player’s goal in “Trouble” is to be the first to send four pieces around the board, the duo sent Katherine Nguyen and Samantha Ayson to chase balls all over the court, giving them practically no chance of hitting them back.

It took 40 minutes for Ghassemi and Pattugalan to earn a 6-0, 6-0 sweep and advance to today’s final at noon.

The competition during the board game lasted longer.

Talk of the board game dominated the discussion afterward, more so than who they will be playing against next, which will be Sabrina Man-Son-Hing of Calabasas and Ellie Edles of Estancia High.

Ghassemi, who will be a sophomore at Mater Dei, didn’t really want to talk about the board game until she saw Pattugalan get excited.

“I love ‘Trouble!’” said Pattugalan, an incoming freshman at Northwood, before talking about how she felt facing her former peers. “It’s kind of awkward. They graduated a year before me.”

Pattugalan still taught Nguyen and Ayson a thing or two.

They even admitted to it.

“This is actually the first tournament that we enrolled in. I’m pretty glad we did because I actually learned a lot, especially from them,” Ayson said. “They’re so good.”

Nguyen agreed, saying “I know.”

What the two future sophomores at Segerstrom found out was that they can’t constantly crowd the center of the court.

Ghassemi and Pattugalan found the open spots, the alleys, where winners hit as often as Pattugalan hitting down that bubble in the middle of the Trouble board game.

Scoring every which way came easy for the duo.

“We got a lot of easy points off our serve,” Pattugalan said. “They thought we were going to go cross court. We mixed up our shots.”

Ghassemi and Pattugalan planned out the strategy before hand. They really didn’t have to because they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses like their favorite and least favorite Harry Potter books.

They said they’ve been playing together since they were 11.

The forehand shots belong to Pattugalan. The backhand shots are Ghassemi’s.

“Her backhand is really aggressive,” Pattugalan said.

That’s true, but Pattugalan got the upper hand on Ghassemi in “Trouble.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.