Retirement Benefit: Huber Advances in 18s : Ojai Tennis: 14-year-old reaches girls’ semifinals when opponent has to quit because of leg cramps while up with match point.

Four junior girls from the San Diego area began Friday with an opportunity to win the girls’ 18-and-under singles title at the 91st Ojai Tennis Tournament.

When the day ended, Ditta Huber, all of 14, was the only one left. Barely.

Huber, playing up two age groups, defeated fellow La Jollan Branaca Elsberry, 6-2, 6-3, in the morning. She then literally outlasted second-seeded Cara Abe of Fresno at the Ojai Valley Inn in a survival-of-the-fittest match that lasted nearly three hours.

Huber will play Nicole London of Brentwood this morning at 11 in the semifinals.

Abe won the first set, 6-2, but Huber came back to take the second, 6-2. Huber was then a point from losing the match, trailing, 5-4 and 40-30, in the third set when Abe’s leg cramped during a two-minute exchange, and she suddenly stopped while chasing Huber’s backhand volley. The shot landed well inside the baseline, and the score was deuce.

The umpire summoned by Huber in the second set to make line calls gave Abe three minutes for an injury timeout, but she was unable to continue.

“The point before match point, I felt it slightly,” said Abe, a senior at Fresno’s Bullard High and bound for Cal on a tennis scholarship. “I’ve never had a muscle cramp like that. But I just couldn’t do anything about it.”

Several times during the point, Huber went for winners with her swinging backhand volley, but Abe somehow tracked down balls that barely landed inside the baseline.

“Technically, it’s probably not the percentage thing to do, to be so aggressive, but that’s the way I play,” said Huber, who beat Abe in a junior tournament event last year.

Although Abe was barely moving during match point, Huber said she was unaware of her opponent’s difficulties.

“I wasn’t sure what happened,” said Huber, an eighth grader at Calvary Christian Junior High. “It would have been nice to finish it to see what would have happened.”

Huber said she also had some cramp problems, in her side. “I was just trying to hang in there.”

Ranked No. 1 in San Diego in the 18s, No. 5 in Southern California in the 16s, Huber said she at times felt the pressure of being in the state’s most prestigious and perhaps toughest junior tournament.

“I got a little excited and tried to hit winners too much,” Huber said. “It took me a while to settle down.”

Tennis Notes

The other San Diego-area players who lost in the girls’ 18s round of 16 along with Branaca Elsberry were Nicole Elliott, beaten by Cara Abe, 6-0, 6-1, and Brooke Galardi, beaten by Nicole London, 6-2, 6-3. . . . In the girls’ 14s singles, Vanessa Rooks of Spring Valley and Leeann Rostovsky of La Jolla reached the semifinals. Rooks defeated Brandi Freudenberg of Orange, 6-1, 7-5, and Rostovsky defeated Ritu Manjunath of Rolling Hills, 6-0, 6-3. . . . James Conda and Jonathon Elsberry of La Jolla advanced to the boys’ 16s doubles finals with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Cameran Lindee and Trenton Rhodes of Anaheim. . . . Taryn Burgk of Del Mar reached the boys’ 14s semifinals with a 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 victory over top-seeded Glenn Weiner of Long Beach. . . . San Diego State’s women’s team defeated UC Irvine, 5-1, to advance to today’s Big West Conference final against UC Santa Barbara. Michelle Apra, Eva Olivarez, Susan Hawke and Nicole Storto won in straight sets. . . . In the independent college bracket, Point Loma Nazarene’s John Norton and Robert Pearson advanced to the men’s doubles quarterfinals, and Kim Wright and Shannon Anderson advanced in women’s doubles. . . . Grossmont College is tied for first in the junior college bracket with Orange Coast and Chavot at 11 points. . . . Other San Diego-area players eliminated: Nikki Willette, San Diego, girls’ 16s; Chris Tontz, San Diego, boys’ 16s; Erika Asmuss and Megan Coakley, La Jolla, girls’ 16s doubles, and Eric Tebbs of San Pasqual, David Smith of La Jolla, Ignacio Martinez of St. Augustine and Franciso Santiallian of Hilltop in the CIF boys’ singles.