Mason has made her mark

Students were considered family to Candace Mason, according to one

Newport Beach resident who took classes from the Costa Mesa resident

and longtime tennis instructor.

Nancy Whalen swung her racket -- along with countless others --

under the watchful eyes of Mason, a tennis instructor with the City

of Newport Beach’s Parks and Recreation Department for 26 years who

died April 15 after a bout with an illness.

Mason, who was 44, spent hours teaching tennis at private clubs

such as Newport Beach and Palisades while logging many hours on the

public courts at San Joaquin Park. For the last two years she also

instructed at Park Newport.

“She gave her life to the city as far as tennis goes,” Whalen

said. “She gave so many people a start in tennis, no matter how awful

we were. She had an element about her where she made the lessons fun

and we all thought we could hit the ball.”

Mason, a former Costa Mesa resident who is survived by her mother,

Helen, and sister, Wendee, taught classes Monday through Saturday.

About 100 well-wishers attended a service for her April 26.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department has approved two

benches to be built -- each bearing a plaque in remembrance of Mason

-- at San Joaquin Park, on the corner of San Joaquin Hills Road and

Crown Drive in Newport Beach.

Whalen, who has lived in Newport Beach since 1988, said $2,000 has

been raised so far for the benches. She is waiting to hear from the

city about how much the benches will cost total.

*

The mother-daughter doubles duo of Dorsey and Bonnie Adams earned

second place out of 12 teams in the United States Tennis

Association’s national mother/daughter indoor championships at Club

Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash., Friday through Sunday.

Seeded third and playing in their first national tournament

together, the Adams’ won their first- and second-round matches before

coming up short in the final.

They beat Paula and Suzanne Massie, 6-3, 6-1, in the first round

before displacing the second-seeded duo of Julia Salomon and

daughter, Melissa Holzinger, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the second round.

Sue Swain and daughter Alison prevailed in the final, 7-5, 6-4.

By finishing second, Dorsey and Bonnie took home a silver ball,

awarded to the second-place team at the USTA-sanctioned event. The

winning team received a gold ball and the third-place duo captured a

bronze ball.

Bonnie, finishing her junior year at Newport Harbor High, competed

on the Sailor girls tennis team last fall.

*

With the Southern California junior sectional tennis championships

scheduled to start June 21, Newport-Mesa should be represented well

by at least two budding stars: Costa Mesa’s Nelly Radeva and Newport

Beach’s Jake Fleming.

Radeva, getting ready to finish her sixth-grade year at Kaiser

Elementary, is ranked No. 1 in Southern California in girls 12s

singles and fifth in that division in the nation. She won the girls

14s singles at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament in April and placed

first in the girls 12s singles of the Quiksilver (boys) and Roxy

(girls) junior tennis tournament at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club

last month. Fleming, an eighth-grader at Ensign, finished second in

the boys 14s singles at Ojai, and is ranked eighth in Southern

California in the same division. He reached the second round of the

consolation bracket at last year’s junior sectionals, a month before

winning the boys 14s singles title at the Costa Mesa junior tennis

classic.

Radeva advanced to the quarterfinals of last year’s sectionals as

an 11-year-old while reaching the final at Costa Mesa.