Steve Virgen
Point after point, deuce after deuce, there seemed to be no way
9-year-old Joseph Di Giulio would let his chance at a tournament
title and the top ranking in Southern California slip away Friday.
Even after losing the first set, 6-4, when he had been up, 4-0, Di
Giulio weathered the storming comeback by 10-year-old Alexios
Halebian. Even after being down, 5-3, in the second set, Di Giulio
concentrated on victory.
Di Giulio, a Newport Coast resident, collected, perhaps, the
biggest victory in his young, promising career, defeating Halebian,
4-6, 7-6 (7-0), 6-1, to win the boys 10s singles title in the 102nd
Southern California Tennis Association junior sectional championships
at the Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club.
The match lasted three hours.
Also, Newport Beach resident Oscar Matthews advanced to today's
1:30 p.m. boys 14s final by defeating Andre Dome of Arroyo Grande,
6-0, 6-4.
"That was a tough match," said Di Giulio (pronounced De-ju-lee-o),
who is left-handed, but can also play with his right. "I didn't want
to give up in the second set. I knew I just had to stay calm and keep
playing hard. I just concentrated on winning that second set."
With the victory, Di Giulio, who was the No. 2 seed, will be
ranked No. 1 in boys 10s singles in Southern California. Halebian was
the No. 3 seed who defeated top-seeded Jonathan Huang of Santa Ana,
2-6, 6-4, 6-4, Thursday to reach the final.
Halebian, who, at times, appeared frustrated with his play,
bounced back from an 0-4 deficit in the first set, by correcting his
errors and capitalizing on Di Giulio's. On the strength of his
first-set victory, it seemed as if Halebian would ride his momentum
to win the championship.
However, Di Giulio answered with a comeback of his own. Down, 5-3,
in the second set, Di Giulio won 10 of the final 12 games to become
the champion.
When he was on the verge of losing, Di Giulio's mother, April, was
making plans for a post-match dinner. Di Giulio's father, Paul, was
telling his friends he was planning to throw away the
video-camera-tape copy of the match.
In the end, Di Giulio was photographed, smiling with the
championship trophy. He said he was excited to play in such a
thrilling match.
The match included some lengthy encounters. In the second game of
the first set, Di Giulio won after four deuces.
In the fifth game of the second set, Halebian won after three
deuces to go up, 3-2. Di Giulio eventually won the match, but
Halebian went down swinging.
