King Quickly Showing She’s Money in Bank

Whether it’s self-assurance or a certain moxie, it’s clear that walking away from nearly $30,000 takes something special.

Especially if you just turned 17.

Vania King of Long Beach knows how much she leaves on the table after two tennis matches of work at Indian Wells, by remaining an amateur, keeping open the option of going to Stanford or Princeton.

“Like 10 grand,” she said on Saturday, laughing and adding, “I get expenses.”

The financial reward at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden falls short of the Grand Slam events, and the Nasdaq-100 Open at Key Biscayne, Fla., but it is at the next level below, and reaching the third round here on the women’s side is worth about $9,500.

Add that to King’s previous winnings, and her earnings reached in excess of $30,000 in 2006, and past the $80,000 mark in her brief career. She defeated 16th-seeded Klara Koukalova, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round and will play Li Na in the third round.

It is the second time King, a wild-card entrant, has defeated Koukalova, who is ranked 27th, in about a six-month span. King is ranked 108th in the world and in all likelihood will break into the top 100, considering this is a Tier I event on the WTA Tour.

The chilly conditions were less than optimal for King and Koukalova out on the remote Court 7, but they were able to finish on a day beset by rain. The erratic Koukalova hits a hard but flat shot off both sides, and King displayed considerably more variety, getting a key service break in the first set with a drop-shot winner.

King’s recent success, which included making the semifinals at a Tier III event in Bangalore, India, last month, has sparked debate, even within her family, about turning pro.

Her older brother Phillip, who twice won the USTA national 18-and-under singles title at Kalamazoo, Mich., before going to Duke, landed in the yes camp.

“He’s very insistent on that,” Vania said. “For him, I think he went to college and was seeing Andy [Roddick] and Mardy [Fish], who he used to beat, and James [Blake] and Taylor [Dent]. They’re all doing so well.

“He feels, ‘If I didn’t go to college, maybe I could have been with them.’ I think that’s part of it.” Still, Vania has taken a wider view of the situation.

“I’ve seen a lot of players -- even though I’ve just started -- that stayed [ranked] around 40 or 50 the last 10 or 15 years, and I just don’t think that’s a good life,” she said. “You’re making good money, but you’re working so hard. And one injury could cost you your career.”

It could have happened to her friend and occasional doubles partner, 16-year-old Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach, considered one of the country’s promising junior players. Glatch suffered an injury on a motor scooter in November and ended up with one arm in a sling and the other in a cast. Though Glatch returned at Indian Wells, she lost in the first round and it will probably take time for her to regain lost momentum.

“She couldn’t even hold the phone [at first],” King said. “She couldn’t even eat by herself, couldn’t do anything by herself for two or three weeks.

” ... I told her she had to get well soon. Because I didn’t want to be the only one here.”