San Marino’s Magnani Wins Girls’ Title

It took San Marino junior Luana Magnani three attempts, but she finally won a Southern Section final.

Magnani, who lost in the doubles championship match as a freshman and the singles final last year, won the singles title Friday with a methodical 6-2, 6-2 victory over Santa Ana Mater Dei senior Melissa Esmero at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.

“I was hoping this was the year,” said Magnani, who didn’t drop a set during the two-day, four-match tournament.

Magnani lost in the singles final last year to Oxnard Rio Mesa’s Tiffany Brymer, but she was never in danger of losing to Esmero, who lost to Magnani in last year’s semifinals.

“We have a little bit of a rivalry going,” Magnani said. “We’ve been playing each other since we were 10. You want to beat the person for respect. So I wanted this one a little more than my other matches. And I played my best against her.”

Esmero’s only serious chance to get into the match came in the second set, when she led 2-1 and had a break point on Magnani’s serve. But Esmero missed an overhead badly and never threatened again.

In the doubles final, Sandra and Carla Rocha of Claremont became the third sister team to win the title as they beat Irvine Woodbridge’s top-seeded team of Adriana Hockicko and Evangalina Soriano, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The Rochas, who won all four matches in three sets, defeated the top three seeded teams.