Tennis Tournament of Champions : Iwalani McCalla’s Strength Carries Her to 16-and-Under Tennis Title

Iwalani McCalla. Remember the name. She figures to become the next teen-age tennis sensation to burst upon the professional tennis circuit.

There certainly wasn’t much competition for the 14-year-old this week at Seventeen Magazine’s Tournament of Champions in Mission Viejo.

McCalla, a freshman at Mountain View High in Los Altos, went through the paces Saturday without breaking a sweat in a 6-2, 6-4 win over unseeded Deirdre Herman of Harrisburg, Pa., to win the 16-and-under division title.

Though it will be two years before McCalla is old enough to get a driver’s license, she sure knows her way around a tennis court. She utilized all of her 5-foot 10-inch frame to overpower Herman. In short, this girl is strong.

“Aggressive tennis has always been my game,” McCalla said. “My serve finally came through in this match. It hasn’t been good until today.”

McCalla won the last game of her first set when Herman double-faulted. Herman regained her composure to take a 3-1 lead in the second set, but McCalla’s powerful ground strokes were too much as she came back to win, 6-4.

The victory was her second in a major junior tournament; she also won her division in the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix. She was seeded seventh in Mission Viejo after winning the 14-and-under division consolation title last year.

The 18-and-under division went true to form, with top-seeded Stephanie London of Rolling Hills defeating second-seeded Nicole Arendt of Princeton, N.J., 6-1, 6-2. London is a 16-year-old sophomore from Miraleste High.

The turning point in the match came midway through the second set. Arendt had won her first game and was leading, 40-love, in the fourth game, but London rallied to take the game.

Only yesterday, London had criticized herself for a lack of concentration in her matches, particularly in the second sets. This time, there was no letup.

“That was the best tennis I’ve played this week,” she said. “I was on top of my game. I knew I was going to have to be good against Nicole.

“She plays a strong serve-and-volley game, and she’s very aggressive coming up to the net. Fortunately, my ground strokes were winners.”

The winner in the 14-and-under division was Carrie Cunningham, a 14-year-old from Livonia, Mich. She was the only non-Californian to win.

Cunningham defeated Kimberly Po of Rolling Hills, 6-0, 6-3, to gain her first major tournament victory. Cunningham was declared the winner of the final set after Po suffered a nose bleed and was assessed a one-game penalty for delaying the game.

Under U.S. Tennis Assn. rules, a player has three minutes to return to the court. If she fails to answer the call, she is given a warning and then penalized a point 30 seconds later.

If the player still fails to answer the call 30 seconds later, she is penalized a game. Po could not continue after a 4 1/2-minute delay, and Cunningham was declared the winner.

“I’ve never seen that happen, but I lost a match when my knee gave out,” Cunningham said. “It’s not as exciting winning when something like that happens. I don’t feel like I actually won.”