Radeva gets her groove on in tourney

FOUNTAIN VALLEY ? All it took was a dispute to get Costa Mesa’s Nelly Radeva focused on Wednesday at the 104th annual Southern California Junior Sectional championships.

Radeva and opponent Asagi Onaga of El Segundo had a disagreement over a point early in the first set of their girls’ 18 singles round of 32 match. Soon after, the No. 6-seeded Radeva went on a rampage.

After being broken at 3-2, Radeva won the last three games of the first set and eased to a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

She moves on to today’s round of 16 match against Lyndsay Kinstler of Laguna Beach at 4 p.m. at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club.

“In the beginning, I was a little nervous,” Radeva said. “I loosened up a little, then I just focused more and started going for my shots ... It was a good warmup. We had some good points.”

Radeva broke again at 2-1 in the second set after a long deuce game, taking advantage of some of Onaga’s double faults.

At 4-1, she broke again on a powerful backhand and soon finished off the match.

The Newport Harbor High freshman, who won the prestigious Easter Bowl girls’ 16 title last spring, withdrew from the Sailor girls’ tennis team in the fall due to her tournament travel schedule.

She moves on to face her practice partner, Kinstler.

“I practice with [her], and [she’s] a good player,” Radeva said. “But I’m playing well, so we’ll see.”

Jill Damion’s girls’ 18 singles match against Thien Nguyen of Long Beach didn’t go as well, as Damion lost, 6-4, 6-3.

Corona del Mar’s Damion was ahead 4-2 in the first set, but was broken twice and Nguyen stormed back to take the set. Nguyen also staked herself to a comfortable 5-1 lead in the second set before Damion began to rally.

“I was trying to wait for her to miss, but she didn’t like to miss,” Damion said. “Since she wasn’t missing, I started going for more, then I started missing.”

She broke Nguyen, then staved off three match points to draw to within 5-3. But Nguyen held her serve to close out the match.

Damion, who advanced to the girls’ 18 doubles semifinals on Saturday by winning two matches with partner Sarah Fansler on Tuesday, plays Samantha Smith of Los Angeles today at 2:15 p.m. in an out-bracket singles match. Damion and Fansler are slated to play Saturday at 4 p.m. in the doubles semifinals.

“Trying to balance the studying and being at school and playing tennis, it’s hard to do,” she said.

Corona del Mar High sophomore Fabian Matthews, the No. 4 seed in the boys’ 16 singles draw, also knows how hard it is to balance school and tennis. He struggled a bit in his round of 32 match against John Huang of Trabuco Canyon before moving on, 6-4, 6-4.

A break early in the first set was enough for Matthews to take the match, but he fell behind, 3-0, in the second set.

“I didn’t feel like everything was on,” Matthews said. “I’ve been sick and I’ve been studying like crazy [for finals], so I haven’t been playing as much.”

Matthews, who captured the CIF Individuals doubles title with partner Dustin Hladek this season, won three consecutive games to tie it, 3-3, then broke Huang at 4-4 and served out.

“I was way too tired to go to a third set,” he said. “I just wanted to come back and finish it.”

Matthews, who led the Corona del Mar High boys’ tennis team to the Pacific Coast League title as the team’s No. 1 singles player, moves on to today’s round of 16 match at 3:30 p.m. against Jason Lin of Irvine, a familiar league foe.

Lin and partner Gautam Vaidyanathan of University High beat Matthews and partner Hladek in the Pacific Coast League finals before Matthews-Hladek bounced back and won the CIF doubles title.

In other action, all three local girls’ 14 singles players won on Wednesday. Melissa Matsuoka of Newport Beach topped Sarah Blair, 6-3, 7-5, and plays No. 3-seeded Gabrielle Desimone in a round of 16 match today at 9:45 a.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Hailey Hogan of Newport Beach, who topped Natalie Johnson, 6-2, 6-4, plays No. 5 seed Jessica Parizher today in a round of 16 match at 11:45 a.m., also at Costa Mesa. And Jungyeun Lee of Newport Coast, who eased past Chanelle McGregor, 6-1, 6-1, plays No. 6 seed Joanna Smith today at 2:45 p.m.

Girls’ 18 singles player Jillian Braverman, who lost, 6-0, 6-1, to Coco Vandeweghe in the round of 32, plays an out-bracket match today at 3 p.m. against Brittany Blalock at Los Caballeros.dpt.22-tennis-2-kt-CPhotoInfoIE1S7K6Q20060622j18kbzncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOTNelly Radeva follows through on a serve during the 104th Annual Southern California Junior Sectional Championships at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club on Wednesday. Radeva won her match to advance to the round of 16.dpt.22-tennis-3-kt-BPhotoInfoIE1S7K7620060622j18kckncCorona del Mar’s Fabian Matthews watches his shot clear the net during the Southern California Junior Sectional Championships.