COSTA MESA SUMMER JUNIOR CLASSIC:Loss not much sting for Estancia’s Edles

COSTA MESA — After years of never-ending back pain, Ellie Edles can bear the short sting of a tennis loss.

Edles, who will be a junior at Estancia High this year, lost a quarterfinal match of the Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic, 6-0, 6-3, to Sabastiani Leon of San Diego Wednesday afternoon.

But in doing so, she accomplished something else: Edles, who has a pars defect — a vertebrae fracture that can cause back pain — played her first tournament in almost two years without a back brace.

She started hitting sans brace this summer, and felt secure enough to play without it this week.

“It’s really constricting, especially on my serve, so I decided to take it off,” Edles said. “It’s nice. It’s a little scary, especially on my serve, going back. I still have problems with the extension, especially on my second serve.”

One morning, in her spring semester of eighth grade, Edles says she woke up with so much pain she couldn’t do much of anything.

It forced her to take a 16-month leave of absence from tennis, which wasn’t easy, because the sport is a staple of the Edles household.

Mike Edles, Ellie’s father, is the women’s tennis coach at UC Irvine.

“It was really frustrating, because it wasn’t enough pain that I was lying down on the floor, but it was enough where it was uncomfortable to play and uncomfortable to do a lot of things,” Edles said.

Now that she’s reduced the pain to a bearable amount — through continual physical therapy and regular visits to her chiropractor — Edles just wants to be competitive again.

Making it to the quarterfinal of the Costa Mesa Junior Classic without her brace was a big step, Edles said, but she still wants to break into the title round.

“It’s a big step and it’s really exciting, so I’m really glad, really happy to be back 100 percent, no constrictions or anything,” Edles said.

She was kicking herself throughout the first set Wednesday, because nothing seemed to be working against Leon.

“She’s really consistent,” Edles said. “She doesn’t really do much with the ball. She doesn’t have much pace, so it’s kind of hard to create your own. She gets a lot of balls back. A lot of tough balls back, which makes you hit the extra ball that I didn’t put away.”

Despite the fact that Leon was unseeded, Edles still had an idea of what to expect from her. Sabrina Man-Son-Hing, Edles’ doubles partner, lost to Leon, 6-7, 6-2, 7-5, the day before.

Edles tried to develop more of a rhythm in the second set, but couldn’t prevent herself from being unseated.

“I tried to start playing my game more, instead of hers,” Edles said. “It didn’t work out as well as I had planned to. It worked better, but not enough.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].

Girls’ 18 singles: Alex McIntosh(C.M.) def. Paige Polizois 6-3, 6-1. McIntosh will play against No. 2 Jordan Heitzner today at 9 a.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Girls’ 16 singles: Sabastiani Leon def. No. 3 Eleanor Edles (C.M.) 6-0, 6-3. No. 5 Leyla Simmons def. No. 4 Neda Ghassemi (C.D.M) 6-3, 6-1. No. 1 Morgan McIntosh def. Danielle Kaiden (N.B.) 6-1, 6-1.

Girls’ 14 singles: Mayo Hibi def. Mazy Watrous (N.B.) 6-1, 6-1. Ariel Aung def. Megan Rucker (N.B.) 6-1, 6-2.

Girls’ 12 singles: Bailey Sholder def. Natalie Cernius (N.B.) 6-2, 6-1.

Girls’ 10 singles: No. 2 Kierstyn Alonzo def. Kinley Ohland (C.M.) 6-1, 6-2. Farah Modarres def. Alexis Coglitore (CdM) 6-2, 6-1.

Boys’ 18 singles: Ali Makmalchi def. Henri Chomeau (N.B.) 7-6, 6-1.

Boys’ 16 singles: Michael Griffin def. Josh Tuz (C.M.) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Boys’ 12 singles: No. 1 Dante Saleh (N.B.) def. Kosta Milovanovic 6-4, 6-1. Saleh will play Jenteel Aloafaras today at 11:00 a.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Boys’ 10 singles: Austin Di Giulio (N.B.) def. Darius Modarres 6-0, 6-0. Chaz Downing (N.C.) def. Gavin Leonard 6-0, 6-0. Di Giulio will face No. 2 Ryan Moss today at 10:00 a.m. at CMTC.

In other matches Wednesday at the Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic (locals only):