PREP TENNIS / SOUTHERN SECTION INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS : O.C. Players Come Up Short of a Title

The end came quickly and painfully for Foothill senior Ryan Thompson. Hindered by an ailing shoulder, he was no match for San Marino’s Andrew Park in the semifinals of the Southern Section individual tennis tournament Saturday at the SeaCliff Tennis Club.

After the 6-4, 6-1 loss, Thompson sat disheartened near the baseline, where he had spent most of the morning trying to match Park’s relentless ground strokes.

“From the very first game I served, I was playing every point from the backcourt,” he said. “I never got a chance to play at the net the way I wanted to. A lot of how I played was dictated by how I served.”

After dropping a close first set, Thompson broke Park’s serve to start the second but missed an opportunity to go up, 2-0, when Park broke him back.

Park didn’t lose another game after that. “When you’re up, 1-0, after losing the first set and you’re serving, that’s the game you have to win,” Thompson said. “That’s the game that can put you over the top.”

In the other semifinal, Sunny Hills junior Joseph Gilbert also lost to a hard-hitting baseline player. Third-seeded Eni Ghidirmic of Palm Desert used his aggressive style to slip past the second-seeded Gilbert, 6-3, 7-5.

“I should have been getting up to the net more and not letting him dictate the points from the baseline,” Gilbert said. “He was really controlling the points from the baseline and I didn’t want that to happen.”

Gilbert held a 4-2 advantage in the second set, but Ghidirmic, not letting up on his second serve, went on a roll and took a 5-4 lead.

Gilbert managed to get even, but Ghidirmic came back and broke his next serve with a hard cross-court forehand and then finished Gilbert off in the 12th game.

“His big second serve kind of surprised me,” Gilbert said. “I saw him earlier in the year and he hit a real big first serve and then slowed up on the second. Today he didn’t slow it up much.”

Park, who reached the semifinals by winning two three-set matches Friday, including a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 victory over top-seeded Adam Webster of Santa Barbara, never got it going against Ghidirmic in the final and lost, 6-2, 6-2.

In doubles, Erik Lundblad and Hanley Ernst of Dana Hills also failed to reach the final, losing to top-seeded Dann Battistone and Andy Scorteanu of Palm Desert, 6-4, 7-6.

Lundblad and Ernst, both seniors, had a 4-3 advantage in the first set and a 3-2 lead in the second but could not slow Battistone and Scorteanu, who went on to win the title with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over second-seeded Bryan Corlett and Dave Armstrong of Santa Barbara.