16TH ANNUAL COSTA MESA SUMMER JUNIOR CLASSIC:

COSTA MESA — Dante Saleh says he goes to the Orange County Fair every year, but he might not be able to hit the rides or eat all that fun food in Costa Mesa this time. That’s because Saleh, a 13-year-old from Newport Beach, is busy playing tennis tournaments this summer.

He sometimes plays two a week, competing in two age divisions in each tournament.

At the 16th annual Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic, Saleh is playing in the boys’ 14 singles and the boys’ 16 singles. He was a bit inconsistent Wednesday, he said, but he was still able to make the semifinals of the boys’ 14s.

Saleh, who’s in the semifinals for the 14s and 16s singles at the Canyon Crest Summer Junior Open in Riverside Saturday, beat Naomichi Yamamoto of Carlsbad, 6-1, 6-3, in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

The No. 5-seeded player will face Spencer Pekar, the No. 3 seed from Pacific Palisades, in a semifinal today at 9 a.m. The championship match is set for Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

“One of my goals this summer was to get more matches, tournament and practice matches,” said Saleh, who won the boys’ 12 singles title at the Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic last year. “In the 16s [quarterfinals], the first set, I played OK. But second set, I kind of dropped off. In 14s I played real well. I stayed focused the whole time. The 16s I kind of drifted in and out of focus.”

Saleh, No. 157 in the USTA Southern California boys’ 14 rankings, lost to the fifth seed, Jimmy Fernandez of Orange, 6-4, 6-1, in the Round of 16. But the Newport Beach home-schooled resident who just turned 13 on July 13 did have a highlight win Tuesday. He outlasted Pierce Stemler of Newport Beach, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the Round of 32.

The summer is expected to remain busy for Saleh, who welcomes all the matches and practices. He said he wants to be No. 1 in the world. That explains all the tournaments and the long hours spent at Matchpoint Tennis Academy in Santa Ana, as well as the many practices at the courts near his home.

His fire flickered that much more recently after watching the Wimbledon final, regarded as the greatest match of all time, when Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer. Saleh was rooting for Nadal.

Now he hopes to be like Nadal on a smaller scale, trying to win a second straight title at the Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic.

In other matches at CMTC involving locals:

Alastair Hurry of Corona del Mar and Reese Stalder of Costa Mesa have advanced to today’s semifinals of the boys’ 12 singles. They will play against each other at 9 a.m., Hurry as the No. 1 seed and Stalder as the No. 3 seed.

Hurry and Stalder are also doubles teammates, seeded in the boys’ 12s. They scored a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Mark Tenney of Newport Beach and Ty Tenney of Temecula in the quarterfinals. Hurry and Stalder play against Evan Nguyen of Huntington Beach and Alex Tran of Irvine in a semifinal match today at 2 p.m.

In the girls’ 12 singles division, Natalie Cernius of Newport Beach defeated No. 4 seed Christie Kittelsen of Lake Forest, 6-2, 6-1, in the quarterfinals. Cernius will face Renata Zarazua today at 3 p.m. in a semifinal match.

Costa Mesa residents Michael Eder and Conner Tamblyn play against Long Beach residents Jenteel Alcafaras and Cory Ritter in a boys’ 14 doubles semifinal match today at 3 p.m. Andrew Nguyen of Newport Beach and his partner Evan Nguyen, the top-seeded doubles team in the boys’ 14s, face Louis Gruber and Ben Rosenblum, both from Virginia, in the other semifinal match today at 3 p.m.

In the boys’ 16 doubles division, Ismaen Aboubakare of Corona del Mar and Caleb Kim of Newport Beach advanced to the quarterfinals when their opponents withdrew. They will play against Orange residents Jimmy Fernandez and Eric Wilson, the fourth-seeded team, today at 2 p.m.

Samantha Stalder of Costa Mesa and her partner Shannon Theisen of Irvine play against the top-seeded duo of Krystal Lai and Lea Lynn Yen in a girls’ 14 doubles semifinal match today at 2 p.m.

— From staff reports