Ansley Boarman expended so much energy fighting from two games down to reach match point Saturday that there were times she wasn’t sure she had enough energy to scale the mountain.

Every time Boarman, an eighth-grader at Baines Middle School in Missouri City, seemed to have her comeback complete, Sydney Sachse of Boerne, Texas, survived long enough to muster a solid shot or force an error.

“This is what all the practice was for,” Boarman’s mother told her as frustration mounted after the fifth missed attempt at victory.

Boarman finally converted on attempt No. 7, sealing her 6-1, 6-4 victory and moving into the Girls 14 Singles-White championship in the Houston Tennis Association’s Houston Major Zone Championships at Lee LeClear Tennis Center.

In her eyes, these tournaments are practice for a larger goal.

“I want to be a tennis pro,” said Boarman, who follows pros Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic. “I love that they have so much passion and when they’re done you can’t tell (how they did) by how they look.

“I’m just trying to follow my dream.”

With largely the same aspirations, 451 players competed at five sites across the area – Lee LeClear, the Homer Ford Tennis Center, Memorial Park, Lake Forest Racquet Club and Chancellor’s Family Center. Few matches Saturday featured the drama and raw emotion of Boarman’s, in which both players grew increasingly vocal as the match wore on under dark, thundering skies.

“I started strong at the beginning but I lost it in the second set and I just wanted (momentum) back,” Boarman said. “I knew I didn’t want to go to a tiebreaker because then I’d be really tired. I wanted (the win). I just didn’t want her to get that last game so I tried my hardest.”

Players advance from zone tournaments to the championship level. This tournament’s winners became Super Champs, meaning they will be eligible to compete in regional and even national tournaments.

Most of this weekend’s participants are from greater Houston, but some are from San Antonio, Corpus Christi and the Hill Country.

Cameron Coffman, a senior at Corpus Christi Carroll, plays Championship events about once a month so this trip wasn’t necessarily special. He just followed the tour.

Coffman advanced to Sunday’s Boys 18 Singles-Red championship with a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Ben Lynch of Houston.

“I’ve been playing for two or three years and I’d like to play in college,” said Coffman, who listed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as a possible destination. “I get a lot of match play and I want to get to the next level. I have to win one of those to do that. Match by match, I’m progressing – serving better and returning, stuff like that.”

Memorial High School senior Jamie Krasnov cruised past Wesley Strahl of San Antonio, 6-1, 6-1, in the Boys 18 Singles-White semifinals.

Formerly a Super Champion player, Krasnov was relegated to the Championship circuit because he is turning 17 July 29 and wasn’t in the top 30 percent of Super Champs when he “aged up.” He would do that with a championship victory.

“This one was tough. (Strahl) was pretty solid and I just had to work around him and try to wear him down,” said Krasnov, who earned two wins Saturday by the same score. “I just had to be aggressive and go for everything.”

All but one singles championship will be at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at Lee Le Clear. The girls 12 singles final was Saturday afternoon.

Doubles championships were scheduled for late Saturday afternoon.

Complete brackets are available here.

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