Doubles title is small consolation

NEWPORT BEACH ? Chris Damion and Parker Rhodes won the boys’ 16 doubles championship of the 17th annual Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club Junior Tournament, but neither was overjoyed.

Satisfied and content was a better description of the pair’s demeanor Friday.

Both of the Corona del Mar High teammates had lost out on the prize they valued higher ? the singles championship.

Damion fell in the semifinal to eventual champion and top seed Warren Hardie in a match that featured a third-set tiebreak, and Rhodes lost in the final of the War by the Shore.

“At least we are going home with a trophy,” Damion said.

The doubles title, which the team earned with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Corona del Mar resident Omeed Ghassemi and Ryan Agbayani of Yorba Linda, was expected. Rhodes had beaten Agbayani and Ghassemi in last year’s final with a different partner, because Damion was recovering from shoulder surgery. Also, Rhodes and Damion have played doubles together for two years, competing in multiple tournaments along the way.

“If we play together, we usually win,” said Damion, who added he will compete with Rhodes in 16 doubles at the Costa Mesa Classic, where they reached the final last year. “We just go along with it. If the tournament is [nearby], we play in it.”

The duo was able to escape a three-set semifinal match in which Damion, admittedly, did not play his best because he was still steaming from his crushing loss in singles only minutes earlier.

“I had to step it up,” Rhodes said.

Regardless of focus, the skills that Rhodes and Damion possess mesh perfectly for doubles.

Rhodes, who can easily range for a ball in any corner of the doubles’ court, plays the net with a precision volley he can use at any angle.

Damion provides the power along the baseline and very often the devastating serve that feeds into Rhodes’ play at the net.

“My reflexes,” Rhodes credited for his adeptness at covering the net. “I like smacking the volley.”

There was also motivation for Rhodes and Damion in that Agbayani and Ghassemi were extremely driven to defeat them. Not only had they lost in the final last year to Rhodes, but Ghassemi, the No. 3 seed who attends Mater Dei High, was bounced from the singles bracket by Rhodes in a semifinal match.

“They are probably mad at us,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes and Damion won with aggressive play. Both players consistently went to the net at the same time and either quickly put away winners or benefited from an unforced error.

“Unless they start lobbing us, that is what we normally do,” Damion said. The match between the top two seeds was not as competitive as expected.

Damion and Rhodes jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set and had double-break point with an opportunity to make it 4-0. But Ghassemi delivered an ace and then charged the net and slammed a winner to make it deuce. After back-and-forth scoring, Ghassemi blasted another ace and a winner to make it 3-1.

Ghassemi and Agbayani would come no closer than 4-3, with Rhodes clinching the set by slamming down a volley.

In the second set, Ghassemi and Agbayani took a 3-2 lead, then held on at 4-4.

But Rhodes and Damion pulled away.dpt.22-tennis-rhodes-CPhotoInfoTF1T6OP920060722j2rphyncCredit: MARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)Parker Rhodes hits a forehand during play Friday in the War by the Shore junior tennis tournament at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club. Rhodes and partner Chris Damion won the boys’ 16 doubles crown. Rhodes lost in the boys’ 16 singles final earlier in the day.