Tennis: Pro circuit can be rude awakening

Richard Dunn

The competition in tennis, like any sport, will determine when or

if you should turn professional.

As some local players get ready to walk the vicious plank of the pro

satellite circuits in the summer of 2000, with the grueling travel and

tough schedules, other area-bred players continue to strive for stardom.

Brandis Braverman, 20, and Alexandra McGoodwin, 15, are playing on the

women’s challenger and satellite tours, while Taylor Dent, 19, is making

strides on the men’s circuit. All three players are from Newport Beach.

McGoodwin, who has yet to officially turn pro, has decided to play

strictly International Tennis Federation events, while trying to become

one of the world’s top juniors.

“Two years from now, she’ll know where she’s at -- whether she’s one

of the top juniors in the world, or ‘Let me go to college,”’ said

McGoodwin’s longtime mentor and former coach, Rance Brown of the Newport

Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club, where the teen phenom grew up

playing.

McGoodwin, who lives and trains at a tennis academy in Florida,

recently advanced to the second round of the Italian Open Juniors, an ITF

event in which McGoodwin faced opponents up to three years her elder.

For aspiring pros, playing ITF events -- especially at McGoodwin’s age

-- is a path better suited for players with lofty ambitions of making the

big time, according to Newport Beach Marriott Director of Tennis Robyn

Ray.

“I don’t think high school tennis and college tennis is the best

system to introduce players to the next level,” said Ray, who played

briefly on the men’s tour in the early 1970s. “International play is

where the Europeans get exposed to this tournament lifestyle for players

16, 17 and 18. For many of our (Newport-Mesa players), it’s a rude

awakening on the pro circuit.”

When the NCAA individual championships end, Stanford senior sensation

Geoff Abrams (Newport Harbor High) will give the pro tour a shot. The key

words here are tour and shot. But at least Abrams has an edge, having

played ITF events throughout his junior career.

“Some (top juniors) don’t see the value of playing intercollegiate

tennis, as opposed to, ‘Get out on the circuit now,’ because it takes a

couple of years to get used to that,” Ray said. “It’s not good or bad.

It’s just the way it is ... all of the sudden, you’re all alone. Maybe

someday you can afford to have your own coach travel with you, but for

starters, you’ve got to go out there all alone.”

Former Corona del Mar High and UCLA standout Keri Phebus quit the

women’s pro challenger and satellite circuits after two years because she

detested the lonely, globe-trotting lifestyle.

“What Keri did was tough, doing it on her own,” Ray said. “You need

that support system.”

Brown, the UCLA women’s assistant tennis coach who helped launch

McGoodwin’s career at the Marriott, was named the Intercollegiate Tennis

Association’s National Assistant Coach of the Year.

Although he’s a hot commodity, Brown said he’s happy at UCLA under

Stella Sampras and doesn’t intend to seek a head coaching job somewhere.

Phebus has been named the boys and girls tennis coach at new Sage Hill

High School in Newport Beach.

Phebus, the 1995 NCAA women’s singles and doubles champion for UCLA,

has been working as an instructor since retiring from pro tennis in

October 1998.

Jon Flagg, teaching pro at Lido Isle, recently won the Anaheim Hills

Tennis Tournament, beating Chris Ganz in the finals, 7-6, 6-2.

Flagg finished the 1999 campaign ranked No. 1 in Southern California

in the men’s 30s singles.

At a recent high school boys tennis match, in which host Corona del

Mar defeated Dana Hills, 13-5, in the CIF Southern Section Division I

quarterfinals, there was a special Davis Cup feel in the audience.

Syd Ball, former Australian Davis Cup member, and Sashi Menon, a

longtime Davis Cup great for India, had sons playing on opposing teams:

Cameron Ball for CdM, Sumil Menon for Dana Hills. Both are sophomores.

Syd Ball and Sashi Menon faced each other in Davis Cup doubles in the

1970s.

Newport Harbor High senior tennis standouts Audra Adams, University of

Mississippi-bound, and Kristen Case, headed for Cal, were among the

honorees Thursday morning at the 39th annual Athletic Awards Breakfast

hosted by the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce at the Sutton Place

Hotel.

Nadia Vaughan of Corona del Mar made it three Back Bay girl tennis

players to be recognized. Vaughan is headed for Southern Methodist.

Adams and her mother, Dorsey, are the nation’s top-ranked

mother-daughter team.

Leslie Damion and her mother, Patricia, of Corona del Mar, could take

over as the nation’s No. 1 team after Audra Adams goes away to school.

The Adamses defeated the Damions last fall in the finals of the USTA

National Mother-Daughter Hardcourt Championships in Texas. It was the

third USTA gold ball for the Adamses.