With a song in your heart, you can conquer the world.

Or, at the very least, play better tennis.

For David Hillner, the song was All You Need is Love.

Hillner began to hum The Beatles' classic as he and teammate Kevin Duffy won 8-6 over Jonash Loh of North Richland Hills and Charlie Sauer of Grapevine on Sunday at the Texas Summer Grand Slam. The local duo was in tune on the court, winning five of six games at one point.

"It's really relaxing," said Hillner, whose musical turn started when he and Duffy took control of the match. "I started with the score about 2-1."

In an inconsistent match, Hillner and Duffy even held their opponent to love on one occasion, not allowing a point on Duffy's service game that included an ace.

The match was a good preview for Hillner, who faces Loh in his first singles match at 12:30 p.m. Monday at Texas A&M's Mitchell Tennis Center.

For their A&M Consolidated teammates, Carlos Aguilar and Nathan Cooner, the song was Natasha Bedingfield's Pocketful of Sunshine.

"He loosened me up with that phrase 'pocketful of sunshine,'" said a smiling Aguilar, who teamed with Cooner last year in the tournament. The duo lost in the second round to the eventual champions.

"We just got that down, and had a pocketful of sunshine out there," Cooner said. "When we started playing better, we got a better feel for their serves and our returns started going in."

Off track early against David Pace's cross-court backhand and whip-cracking overhand volleys Sunday, the former A&M Consolidated doubles teammates mixed the pace to rally from deficits of 2-0 and 4-1 and forge a 5-5 tie.

Both Aguilar and Cooner had a pair of service aces in the rally, but Pace and teammate Andrew Maingot closed out their victory by holding serve and getting a break against Aguilar.

"During one game, we started wrong-footing the net guy, but by the end, they were just slamming out returns," Cooner said.

Two other teams with College Station players lost in the single-elimination doubles bracket. Serving to tie the match at 6-6, Brian Sherry double-faulted twice. John Bruckley and Adam Chirhart won that game and locked up the match a game later, 8-5.

College Station's Rushi Dave, teamed with Arbrish Vasudevan of Sugar Land, lost an 8-3 match to ninth-seeded Nicholas McCollin and Adam Putterman of Houston.

Nellie Hillner stayed alive in 16 singles with a pair of consolation wins in girls 12 singles. Having already assured herself of a doubles match Monday, she could win her way into a three-match day with an opening singles win against 17th-seeded Felicity Delgado of Universal City. On Sunday, Hillner beat Lubbock's Maggie Jordan 6-0, 6-0 and Precious Gbadamosi of Houston 6-2, 7-5.

Franklin's Kayla Casey was pushed to three sets in her opening match Sunday, but also won twice in the consolation round to remain in contention in 14 singles. Casey defeated Nicole Karaklis from San Antonio, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, and then beat Iris Wigosksy of San Antonio 6-3, 6-2.

Frankie Colunga was pushed to the consolation round by ninth seed Grant Murray of Denton, who won 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in 14 singles. Only eight unseeded players survived to the round of 32 in the main draw. Colunga picks up consolation play Monday.

Singles play begins for 18 boys and girls Monday, and the area's highest-seeded doubles teams are also in action. Franklin's Class 2A state champion Austin Klores is seeded ninth in singles and begins play against Alexander Lamb of Sugar Land at 12:30 p.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center. Klores has teamed with Dallas' Max Stephens in doubles, and they play at 5:15 against Dallas' Rob Oberman and Warren Race. That duo defeated Austin's Alex McKinzie and Phillip Allen 8-5 on Sunday.

A&M Consolidated's Anik Cepeda will play with Christine Molina of Dallas on the third-seeded team. They play Sheri Oliver and Lauren Santacrose of Spring at 6 p.m. at Miramont Country Club.

• David Campbell's e-mail address is david.campbell@theeagle.com.