Tennis: Grueling day at Costa Mesa Pro Classic

There was nothing easy in the four quarterfinal matches Friday at the Costa Mesa Pro Classic, a $10,000 United States Tennis Assn. Pro Circuit event.

All four matches were gritty affairs taking three sets each. When the dust had settled, No. 2-seeded Jarmere Jenkins from Virginia, third-seed Tennys Sandgren, from Florida, fifth seed Dennis Novikov, formerly of UCLA, and eighth seed Jeff Dadamo, of Florida, advanced.

The 20-year-old Novikov, who has won two Pro Circuit events this year, needed tie-breakers in each set to topple top-seed Matt Reid, of Australia. Novikov beat Reid, 6-7(5) 7-6(6) 7-6(3).

Another grueling match saw Sandgren, currently ranked 290th in the world, beat Ty Trombetta 3-6 7-6(4) 6-4 , needing more than three hours to finally beat the 24-year-old Floridian Sandgren, 23, has won six times on the Pro Circuit.

Dadamo exacted some revenge on fourth-seed Dennis Nevolo, who beat him in the quarterfinals last week in Claremont.

“Playing someone the next week is good because the last match is fresh in your mind,” said Dadamo, 25, who has reached eight Pro Circuit semifinals and has won one event. “I tried some different tactics this time, things I wasn’t able to use last week, and just outlasted him.

The fourth semi-finalist is Jenkins, who needed a tiebreaker to claim in the first set, and lost the second to former UCLA player Clay Thomas 6-1, before winning the third 6-3.Jenkins, who is currently ranked 280th in the world and has won twice on the Pro Circuit, was the 2013 NCAA tournament MVP for the national champion University of Virginia men’s tennis team.

The long matches played have worked against Dadamo and Sandgren in their semifinal doubles match later in the day, as they dropped in straight sets to Jeremy Hunter Nicholas, who played at San Diego State, and Junior Alexander Ore, a senior at Texas A&M.

The other doubles match was won by UCLA teammates Mackenzie Mcdonald and Martin Redlicki, who dispatched Try Trombetta and Kyle Mcmorrow. Saturday, Novikov faces off against Dadamo at 10 a.m., followed by Sandgren and Jenkins.

The final will be played Saturday following the doubles championship, which will begin at 10 a.m.

— From staff reports