Di Giulio plays big for singles title

COSTA MESA — Countless times, April Di Giulio has seen her son Austin get mocked for being 7 years old.

The rest of the kids in the tennis tournaments he competes in tend to be two to three years older, about a foot taller and 25 pounds heavier than the 4-foot-1, 55-pound future second-grader.

“I got to play against this little kid?” April said she hears opponents usually asking in amusement.

Understandable, just look at her son.

Before Di Giulio can flip the scorecard mounted at the end of one of the net’s poles, he sometimes has to tiptoe to reach it.

The balancing act is something Remus Risnoveane, 10, has seen before playing Di Giulio for the boys’ 10 singles championship at the 15th annual Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic Friday.

But never as much as Di Giulio did at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

At one point during the match, Di Giulio, of Newport Beach, flicked the card indicating games won 10 straight times. The last time finished Risnoveane off as Di Giulio came back from trailing by one game in the first set to win 6-3, 6-0, and claim another trophy.

This one is the fourth of his young career, far from the 100-plus trophies his older brother Joseph, the nation’s top-ranked 12-year-old, has accumulated.

This one is probably Di Giulio’s favorite, too. He said he plans be place it on top of Joseph’s old shelves, which ran out of room to display his feats.

The gold hardware should stand out from the other two first-place trophies and one runner-up. This trophy showcases a tennis player with his racket out ready to score another winner.

Di Giulio laced quite a few of those against Risnoveane.

Di Giulio couldn’t wait for the title match. He rose around 6 to prepare before going with his mom to drop off Joseph at the Woodbridge Tennis Club Academy in Irvine for a five-hour tennis workout.

The next hours the attention from his parents belonged to Di Giulio. The Our Lady of Queen of Angels School student wanted it that way.

The last time Di Giulio faced Risnoveane, he lost, 6-4, 6-3, and watched Risnoveane walk away from the tournament earlier this year in Bakersfield elated.

Paul, a former Cal State Fullerton tennis player, said his son lost “really bad.”

But this time Di Giulio made sure to look good — even though when he drank out of his water jug it looked as though he was drinking out of a Gatorade bucket.

He sprayed the ball, forcing Risnoveane into mistakes. Sometimes the ball found Risnoveane’s frame instead of the strings.

At the end, Di Giulio observed the 5-foot player from Anaheim Hills break down. Fortunately for Risnoveane, his father, Julian, a former Romanian Olympic wrestler, stood by.

Julian consoled him, telling him everything would be OK.

“It’s tough,” he said of watching his son lose to a younger player. “Sometimes I kind have a tendency to get emotional.”

Di Giulio wasn’t surprised by the younger Risnoveane’s antics.

“He cries a lot,” he said, something Di Giulio doesn’t do much of after matches.

From watching Joseph play, he’s learned how to handle winning and losing. The maturity is already showing and Austin just started competing in tournaments since turning 7 in January.

The future looks promising. And instead of getting jealous of his brother’s success, he’s trying to replicate it.

Di Giulio admires his brother, who also competes in older divisions because his game is superior to those his age.

“When I was a little kid, I could see his strokes and stuff, so I can start copying him,” he said before adding that Joseph just cut his long hair and copied his short haircut.

The younger one has the ultimate role model to follow and he’s benefiting.

Now the older and bigger kids, the ones who used to scoff at playing Di Giulio, are beginning to respect him after matches.

“They’re like, ‘How old are you?’ I’m like, ‘I’m 7,’ ” Di Giulio said. “They’re like, ‘You’re good for 7.’ ”

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