Ghassemi has time for title

COSTA MESA — One tennis player planned to catch up on her summer reading for school. The teammate planned to practice.

Different Friday evening schedules for Neda Ghassemi of Corona del Mar and Courtney Pattugalan of Irvine.

Getting to them on time became difficult.

But both made sure to delay them after falling behind the first set of the girls’ 16 doubles championship at the 15th annual Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic.

The duo finally began to figure out Ellie Edles of Estancia High and Sabrina Man-Son-Hing of Calabasas in the second set.

The intimidation stemming from Edles and Man-Son-Hing knocking out the top seed went away as quickly as practically everyone vacated the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

No more title matches left. Just the one featuring these two teams.

“They haven’t played together in awhile,” said Pattugalan of an edge she and Ghassemi took advantage of the rest of the way.

The two have known each other since 11 and the familiarity paid off as Ghassemi and Pattugalan came back to win, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The duo last year reached the semifinals of the 14-year-old division before getting ousted.

It moves up and it wins.

“A real fun match,” said Ghassemi, a future sophomore at Mater Dei. “We had some really tough opponents and it was a nice challenge.”

Now the test is to get through “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” by Nora Zeale Hurston. Reading 256 pages won’t be easy to do in one night.

The title match wasn’t either. Edles and Man-Son-Hing made sure of that with their strong net game.

After breezing through the first set, the two future juniors left something on the bench parked near the court.

“Our intensity,” Man-Son-Hing said.

The aggressive play, which helped Man-Son-Hing and Edles beat Karin Ishii and Danielle Kaiden of Corona del Mar High, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals the day before, vanished.

A 2-1 lead in the second set turned into a 5-2 advantage for Ghassemi and Pattugalan. The volleys that blew away the two before were getting returned. Despite cutting the deficit, 5-4, Pattugalan closed it out with her strong serve.

The same thing happened in the final set.

Ghassemi and Pattugalan jumped ahead, 4-2, with the opposition evening the score by taking the next two games.

But even though Edles said she and her teammate found their strokes again, it didn’t matter.

“They started playing better,” she said. “We weren’t ready for it.”

Edles wasn’t prepared. To leave the court that is at the end.

After a couple of rallies against Pattugalan, she hit one wide, barely missing from recording a winner and prolonging the event.

Edles appeared shocked that it was over. Pattugalan was glad it was.

“I have to go to practice in Anaheim,” she said, knowing she had a couple of hours left to get some work in. “I’m going to be late.”

Pattugalan has a good excuse for being tardy — a championship plaque.

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