If Sean Liu wanted to test the endurance he's worked all summer to build, Saturday at the Kingdaddy August Junior Open was the perfect place.

With temperatures nearing 100 amidst high humidity, the Bellaire High School junior played a nearly two-hour match against Gandhi Bhakthavachalam of Houston at Bay Area Racquet Club, next to the Johnson Space Center. Liu lost 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 but didn't appear frustrated.

The Cardinals' No. 2 singles player has spent most of the summer building endurance and playing sometimes four hours a day, a habit not broken by a recent month-long trip to his parents' native China to see family and friends.

"I played quite a bit tennis there - two hours a day most of the time, sometimes four to six hours," Liu said. "Being to able to run from one point to another is fine, but when you have to do it for two or three hours straight, you kind of break down near the end so I've been working on (endurance). I have a lot of time to do it during the summer. During school, our workload is terrible ... and sometimes I don't even have time to play."

Liu originally chose tennis over sports such as football, soccer and baseball because of a breathing problem - "it wasn't asthma," he said - when he was younger.

"During soccer you run the entire time ... and I just couldn't keep up with that," he said. "So my parents (Andrew and Wei Ming) thought tennis might be a good game for me. I could sprint for a while, then take a break. I didn't like it at first ... it is mentally and physically draining.

"When I first started I'd hit for a while, then take a break. ... But as you get better at tennis, there's more depth to it. It's a lot easier to play and train and know what you're trying to do."

Action in nine age brackets - ranging from Boys 10 singles and Boys and Girls 18 singles - took place all day Saturday on 10 courts.

Other participating locals included Seven Lakes players Nicole Breaux and Maury Smalls, Katy residents Jessica Gonzalez, Rachael and Rebecca Green, Scott Howard, Jesse Mao, Kishan Ponnadurai, Swetha Ram and Bianca Tijerina; and Cypress' Robert Carder, Alexandru Ionescu, Richard and Sophia Newton and Courtney Anderson.

They represented local high schools Bellaire, Stratford, Strake Jesuit and Seven Lakes, among others. Some were from as far away as Austin and Dallas.

Liu was to play again either later Saturday or early Sunday, depending on how Bhakthavachalam fared in his Saturday evening match. He wouldn't know the result until well after 6 p.m.

Complete brackets and other tournament information are available here. The brackets will be updated after Sunday's championship finals.

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