SET IN HER WAYS

Melissa Nguyen follows a routine before every tennis match.

“The night before a match, I’ll go to bed by 10--that’s early for me--and I’ll just take things easy,” she said. “I’ll have a healthy breakfast. I have the same outfit--but many of them--that I always wear. I have to stretch and warm up correctly, and eat correctly.

“And I wouldn’t talk too much, to anyone. I’m pretty serious before all my matches.”

Her preparation has led to another routine--winning.

Nguyen, a senior on the Campbell Hall girls’ tennis team, has not lost a set at No. 1 singles this season. She is 39-0 in round-robin competition, having dropped only 18 games while leading the Vikings to a 9-4 record.

Nguyen has a 79-18 record in games, has won three matches without losing a point and has made a habit of beating foes, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0.

“Her strokes are the same as they were last year, but she’s smarter than that,” Campbell Hall Coach Ben Harvey said. “If she can win a point with an angle, she’ll do that rather than just try to hit the ball harder.

“Her thinking, her footwork has really improved, and she’s more invincible than she was [last year]. She doesn’t fall apart. She can weather the storm now. Last year, Melissa never lost, but she didn’t beat girls, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, all the time.”

Nguyen has been on a roll since August. The No. 36-ranked player in the girls’ 18-and-under division in Southern California won the back-draw of a tournament in San Francisco, won a tournament in Anaheim and made the final of another event that month. She is 18-9 in U.S. Tennis Assn. tournament matches this year.

“I would say this has been a really good year for me, a great year,” Nguyen said. “I’ve worked hard for this, but I never thought I’d go through a season going undefeated. Even when I’m playing lousy, I can still get out of trouble somehow.”

She does it with intense concentration, an even more intense desire to win and an all-court game that has improved since she transferred from Beverly Hills High after her sophomore year.

“Her forehand is her strong point, but her ability to come into the net makes it like a one-two punch, where it used to be just a one-punch,” said Bruce Foxworth, Nguyen’s private coach since 1991.

Nguyen’s improvement began to pay dividends for Campbell Hall last year.

As a junior, she was 63-0 in round-robin competition during the regular season and team playoffs. She advanced to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section individual tournament before being overpowered by eventual champion Tiffany Brymer of Rio Mesa.

“I’m very focused when I’m playing, and I’m competitive,” Nguyen said. “When I’m on the court, it’s just me, the opponent and the tennis ball.”

Her focus in every match is the same--not to lose a game.

“I try for that, and I’m really proud of myself when I do it,” Nguyen said. “It’s more concentration than anything.”

When she was 8, Nguyen began hitting tennis balls against a wall at Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills. She has taken weekly private lessons for eight years, and she gave up basketball, soccer and roller hockey to focus on tennis when she entered high school.

She acknowledges letting her emotions get the best of her at times.

“When I’m losing, I kind of get emotional, and when I was younger, I used to be awful,” she said. “Believe it or not, I have a temper, and it would affect my play.”

By gaining experience, maturity and confidence, Nguyen can better handle the ups and downs of competition.

“Being a good competitor takes a stable personality,” Foxworth said. “She’s very smart, she’s very witty and she’s emotional, and that’s good. But you need to channel it. She’s come a long way in that.

“You need to realize that you’re rarely going to play your very best. Most of the time, it takes an understanding that you just have to be a good competitor. It’s whether you can let things roll off your back and be maybe not your best, but better than the other person.”

Nguyen likes antiques--her parents own and operate an antique furniture shop in Los Angeles--but neither tennis nor winning ever gets old.

“Besides my family, tennis is my life,” she said. “I can’t think what life would be like without it.”

Probably anything but routine.