COSTA MESA SUMMER JUNIOR CLASSIC:

COSTA MESA — Both players wore red, but there was no anger Thursday between Alastair Hurry and Reese Stalder at the 16th annual Costa Mesa Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic.

The two young tennis players are also friends, which made their boys’ 12 singles semifinal match a little bit more difficult to navigate.

The top-seeded Hurry, a Corona del Mar resident, ended up beating Stalder, 6-2, 6-3, at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center. But there were no controversies, and no kids running off the court to get an umpire after a disputed line call.

“We’re pretty good friends,” said Hurry, 12, who will enter the seventh grade at Carden Hall School in the fall. “I played him in the 10s in a tournament and I’ve known him for about a year and a half. “It’s kind of hard to play a friend.”

Hurry worked through it to move on to today’s championship match against Patricio Zarazua, scheduled for 9 a.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

But No. 3-seeded Stalder, an 11-year-old from Costa Mesa, also didn’t really like playing against a friend.

“If I win, I might feel bad for them,” said Stalder, who will be a sixth-grader at Pegasus School. “And it may not be as competitive as playing a regular person who I don’t really know.”

Both players’ nerves showed early in the match, as both Hurry and Stalder were broken twice to begin the first set. But, from there, Hurry rattled off four straight games to take the set.

Hurry also barged out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, before Stalder came storming back. He held his own serve for the first time in the match, then broke Hurry’s serve to pull within 4-3.

From there, however, Hurry won two straight games to close out the match. He showed poise, like the professional players he saw earlier this month when Hurry went to Wimbledon to check out a couple rounds of matches.

“I started off against him a little slow, but I played well in the end of the first set,” Hurry said. “The second set was pretty good, even though I could have closed it out a little earlier. I hit a couple of stupid shots, but he hit some good shots, too, like the backhand cross-court.

“I was trying to stay positive and hopefully get that important game at 4-3. It’s either 5-3 or 4-4 [after that], and that’s a pretty big difference.”

Stalder did have a good return game, with the cross-court forehand a particularly potent weapon.

“Alastair played well,” he said. “I thought I maybe could have made a couple more shots, but I think he probably deserved to win ... I couldn’t hold my serve. He was doing a good job of attacking my second serve, I think.”

Both players appear to have bright futures. They are both ranked in the top 100 in Southern California boys’ 12s by the United States Tennis Assn; Hurry is No. 45 and Stalder is No. 75.

And Thursday, their day wasn’t over after their singles match, because they’re also the top-seeded team in boys’ 12 doubles. Hurry and Stalder topped Evan Nguyen of Huntington Beach and Alex Tran of Irvine, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to today’s final. They’ll play Even and Bret Kittelsen of Lake Forest at 1 p.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

In other semifinal matches Thursday at Costa Mesa Tennis Center:

Newport Beach resident Dante Saleh eased through to the boys’ 14 singles final by topping No. 3-seeded Spencer Pekar of Pacific Palisades, 6-2, 6-1. Saleh, the No. 5 seed, will face No. 6-seeded James Lafond of Irvine today at 9:30 a.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center for the title.

Samantha Stalder will also play for a title. The Costa Mesa resident topped Camille Deleon of La Mirada, 7-5, 6-4, in the girls’ 14 semifinals. Stalder will face top-seeded Krystal Lai of Irvine in the championship match today at 10 a.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

The top-seeded boys’ 14 doubles team of Andrew Nguyen of Newport Beach, along with Evan Nguyen of Huntington Beach, advanced to the final after their semifinal opponents defaulted. They’ll face Jenteel Alcafaras and Cory Ritter of Long Beach in the final today at 1 p.m. at CMTC.

Stalder and Shannon Theisen of Irvine lost in a girls’ 14 doubles semifinal, 6-0, 6-0, to Lai and Lea Lynn Yen of Fullerton.

Newport Beach’s Natalie Cernius also fell in a girls’ 12s singles semifinal match, 6-0, 6-0, to Renata Zarazua of Tordeo.

Ismaen Aboubakare (CdM) and Caleb Kim (NB) lost a boys’ 16 doubles quarterfinal to Jimmy Fernandez and Eric Wilson of Orange, 6-1, 6-2.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.