Damion through to doubles final

FOUNTAIN VALLEY ? The Corona del Mar girls’ doubles contingent unintentionally teamed up Saturday at the 104th annual Southern California Junior Sectional Championships.

Corona del Mar’s Cierra Gaytan-Leach, paired with Micaela Hein of Mission Viejo, lost a near-three-hour match to Anna Chkhikvishvili and Kaitlyn Christian in the girls’ 18 quarterfinals, 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4.

Corona del Mar’s Jill Damion, teamed with Sarah Fansler of Laguna Niguel, took advantage in a semifinal match less than an hour later. Damion and Fansler topped a drained Chkhikvishvili and Christian, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to today’s 2:30 p.m. final at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club.

They will play Lyndsay Kinstler of Laguna Beach and Alison Ramos of Carson, who won in straight sets in the other semifinal.

“They’re both really good singles players, but they both know how to play doubles,” Damion said. “I think if we both just play well and don’t make stupid mistakes, then we’ll be OK.”

In other action Saturday, Newport Beach resident Joseph DiGiulio fell in the boys’ 12 singles semifinals to Reo Asami of Irvine, 7-5, 6-0.

Newport Beach’s Ali Walters also fell in the girls’ 16 semifinals to Christian, 6-4, 6-3.

Both Walters [9 a.m.] and DiGiulio [1 p.m.] have third-place matches today at Los Caballeros.

Damion and Fansler’s semifinal match was all about service breaks, especially early on. The first five games were all service breaks, before Fansler got an important hold to make it 4-2. The duo then broke serve again, and Damion held serve to close out the first set.

Damion and Fansler kept control in the second set, winning the first five games. But Chkhikvishvili and Christian rallied, breaking serve twice while winning three straight games to draw within 5-3.

With Chkhikvishvili serving, however, Damion and Fansler broke again to end the match.

“In the last game, we both realized we needed to keep doing what we’d been doing, which was to make strategic plays and hit winners,” Damion said.

DiGiulio, who turned 11 on June 16, was involved in some very long rallies in his match, in which he owned a 3-1 first-set advantage.

But Asami, noticeably taller, won the last three games to win the first set.

Asami then cruised through the second set, often aggressively coming to the net and playing a variety of slice shots.

“It wasn’t a physical thing in the second set,” said DiGiulio’s coach, Billy McQuaid. “It was a mental thing. You play so hard, and it takes the wind out of your sails. But we don’t look at it as a loss. It’s a learning experience.”

Gaytan-Leach and Hein made comeback after comeback in their quarterfinal. After losing the first set they were down, 0-40, while serving to stay in the second set at 5-6.

But the team staved off three match points to force a tiebreaker. Once there, they were down, 6-3, but staved off three more match points to take the set.

“We just stayed pumped the whole time, and never let down,” Gaytan-Leach said.

Gaytan-Leach and Hein went up, 3-1, in the third set, then lost four consecutive games.

Hein held to pull within 5-4, but that was as close as the duo would get.

Gaytan-Leach, 14, wasn’t satisfied with her performance, even though she was playing up.