Persistence paid off this week for Renata Guzman.

After a two-hour, 45-minute semifinal tennis match Thursday at In Shape Sports Club Marina in Stockton, the Tracy High sophomore earned a spot in Friday’s San Joaquin Athletic Association singles championship match against Lincoln’s Naomi Villapando.

Villapando went on to win the final Friday, 6-3, 6-3, but both girls will represent the SJAA in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I individual tournament Nov. 12 and 13 at In Shape Sports Club West Lane.

Guzman had a bye in her first round and beat Bear Creek’s Serena Kesovang 10-2 to make it to the semifinals, where she faced Lodi’s No. 1 player, Anna Adams. It was a rematch of a season-long series, as Guzman beat Adams in their previous two meetings during league play.

While Guzman beat Adams in straight sets in league play, Adams took a 6-1 win in the first set Thursday. The players battled for the lead in a second set characterized by extended rallies and close games in every match. That went to a 6-6 tie, and Guzman won the 8-6 tiebreaker.

In Guzman’s 6-4 win in the final set, the only point that wasn’t a long rally was the ace she scored on her final serve.

“By far, it was the longest match, the best match, that I’ve played,” Guzman said afterward. “You just have to push yourself. If she wants it, I just wanted it more. I had to make sure I put out a 110 percent effort.”

She added that by the tiebreaker in the second set, she worried that her opponent could wear her down, but she kept chasing down Adams’ shots.

“I figured, I came all this way, why finish now?” Guzman said.

Tracy’s No. 2 player, Michelle Kouda, had a bye in the first round, beat Bear Creek’s Lila Kesovang 10-2 in the second round, and lost to Villapando 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinal.

In the doubles tournament on Friday the Tracy team of Paige Noonan and Madeline Geibig will advance to the Sac-Joaquin Section tournament after they made it to Friday’s championship match. The beat Bear Creek’s number-two team 10-0, beat Lodi’s team of Audrey Simon and Emily Bingham 10-5 in the quarterfinal, and played a close match against Leia Turner and Ashley Bomes 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 to make the final and the section tournament.

They faced the Lodi team of Jacque Lord and Anna Adams in the final, and settled for second place after the Lodi girls won it 6-2, 6-3.

Tracy’s other doubles team of Chiara Adamo and Paige Johnson made it to the second round after they beat Bear Creek 10-5, but then lost to Lords and Adams in the quarterfinal.

West, Kimball

Across town at West Lane sports club, West and Kimball players competed in the Tri-City Athletic League tournament. West’s Jasmin Fonseca and Tiful Koul had byes the first round, and Emma Bell beat Bernadette Abrea of Edison High 10-2 in the first round.

Kimball’s Andrea Candalla and Krishna Sankara had byes in the first round, and Aloukika Shah lost her first-round match to Aimme Balacy 10-3.

Koul beat Candalla in the second round, 10-5, and then lost to Tokay’s Mandy Majidian, 10-5, in the quarterfinal. Fonseca beat Balacy, 10-0, in the second round but then lost to Christiana Ferrari of St. Mary’s, 10-0, in the quarterfinal. Bell lost her second-round match to Nicola Polcerova of Tokay, 0-10.

Polcerova beat Ferrari 6-4, 6-0 in the final on Friday, and in the third place match Leah Figone of St. Mary’s beat Majidian 6-1, 7-5.

West High sent three teams to the TCAL doubles tournament on Friday, and the team of Emma Bell and Jasmin Fonseca will represent West and TCAL at the section tournament after they made it to the championship match.

Bell and Fonseca had a bye in the first round and won their second round match against Lauren Fisher and Kate Precissi. In the quarterfinal they beat Kelly Sao and Phannaray Veasna 10-2, and faced their West teammates Tiful Koul and Regina Pacheco in the semifinal, where Bell and Fonseca won 6-4, 6-0.

The other semifinal match was between two St. Mary’s teams, and Nikki Kriskovich and Lindsey Williams won that and went on to beat Bell and Fonseca 7-6(7-4), 6-3.

Koul and Pacheco won their first round match against Pao Vang and Naj Washington of McNair 10-1, beat the McNair team of Guess Calderon and Pharia Le 10-2 in the second round, and beat the Tokay team of Alexa Abdalla and Andrea Ikeda 10-8 in the quarterfinal before they lost to their teammates in the semifinal.

They went on to play the St. Mary’s team of Maddie Ellis and Allie Seals in a match for third place, and the St. Mary’s girls won that 6-0, 6-1.

West’s other doubles team of Angie Juan and Ashley Vergel de Dios beat Sydney Correa and Jenelle Wu of Tokay 10-7 in the first round and lost to Ellis and Seals from St. Mary’s, 10-2, in the second round.