Dunk, Friedman advance

Jasie Dunk knows that sometimes you have to problem-solve during a match.

Dunk, who will be a junior at Corona del Mar High, went up against Sravya Gudipudi of Clovis on Thursday morning in a girls’ 16 singles semifinal of the Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic tennis tournament.

The match was closer than the score, a 6-2, 6-1 win for Dunk, would indicate.

“I play with a lot of spin, so when girls like her come hitting flat, it’s really hard for me to get the ball up,” Dunk said. “She was definitely a very flat player, so that was a challenge, but I think after a while I started hitting high balls. She had good strokes.... She would just kind of whack it, and then I’d be on the defense.”

The top-seeded Dunk gets to play on her second straight Friday after winning the “War by the Shore” tournament last week. She goes for the Costa Mesa title Friday at 11:30 a.m., when she’ll play No. 2-seeded Skyler Grishuk of Aliso Viejo.

Newport Beach resident Lauren Friedman is the other local player to vie for a title, in the girls’ 12s. The No. 2-seeded Friedman beat Alyssa Bojenkova of Glendale, 6-2, 6-2, in the semifinals and will play top-seeded Seychelle Balog of Laguna Niguel in the title match Friday at 10 a.m.

Newport Beach resident Andre Saleh lost in a boys’ 16 singles semifinal match to Alonso Magdaleno of Chula Vista, 6-4, 0-6, 10-2, in a third-set super-tiebreaker.

For Dunk, solving problems like Gudipudi’s flat balls has become commonplace as she has skyrocketed up the girls’ 16s rankings. She hasn’t dropped a set yet in the Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic, with every set being 6-0, 6-1 or 6-2.

Gudipudi broke Dunk’s serve in the first game of the second set, the first time that Dunk has been broken this tournament. But she responded to win six straight games and take the match, though several of those games went to deuce.

“All this does is just builds up my confidence and I get more comfortable on the court,” Dunk said. “Just to be in the finals two weeks in a row is super-cool. Hopefully I can come out with a win. It’s definitely going to be a hard match.”

Grishuk, who is playing up in age division, was a finalist last year in this tournament in the 14s. She is ranked No. 15 in Southern California in the 14s, and No. 2 in the 12s.

“She’s young, but she’s solid,” Dunk said. “I think I’m going to come to the net a lot, because I don’t know what else I would do. Just put the points away fast, try to at least.”

Friedman, meanwhile, made the 12s finals after a solid effort against Bojenkova.

“I felt pretty good,” Friedman said. “I think my ground strokes were pretty good.”

A key moment came in the second set, when Friedman was trying to hold serve in a long game at 3-2. She was able to do so, then also won the next two games to complete the match.

“That was a really important game,” Friedman said. “If she won that game, it would have been way closer.”

Friedman knows she also has a tough opponent in the final in Balog, who beat her, 6-1, 6-0, in the final of the Laguna Niguel Junior Open last month.

“I can learn from the experience,” she said. “I’m just hoping to have a good match and play my best.”

Saleh lost a back-and-forth boys’ 16s semifinal. After a close first set, Magdaleno broke Saleh’s serve while he was serving at 4-5. He won the second set, 6-0, but fell behind early in the third-set super-tiebreaker and could not recover.

“I didn’t keep with what was working enough from the second set to the tiebreaker,” Saleh said. “I think I was rushing too much, trying to come to the net too much. I mean, I wasn’t coming to the net too much, but I would be too amped up when I got there.”

Saleh lost his temper a bit after the match. He threw his racquet into the net, which led referee Sandra Bowerbank to write him up.

“I’ve never been written up before,” he said. “It probably would have been better if I just threw my racquet out here [on the grass] if I was going to, instead of on the court.”

Still, he feels positive overall about the way he is playing tennis. He said he will play the Level 2 Mary Brymer tournament in Irvine next week before taking some time off from tournaments to practice.

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•In doubles action, all of the remaining locals lost in semifinal matches Thursday. Newport Harbor High incoming juniors Michelle Pokusa and Lily Walkow lost to Elizabeth Bondy of Laguna Hills and Cami Brown of Irvine, 6-1, 6-4, in a girls’ 16s semifinal.

Corona del Mar High incoming freshmen Bella McKinney and Shaya Northrup fell to Ana Martinez and Fredel Sanchez Paszko of Mexico, 6-4, 7-6, in a girls’ 14s semifinal. Martinez and Sanchez Paszko will play Kayla Meraz of Brea and Milana Molnar of Ladera Ranch in the final.

Meraz and Molnar beat CdM incoming freshman Roxy Mackenzie and Newport Beach resident Natasha Hill in the other girls’ 14s semifinal, 6-1, 6-1.