Collegiate Tennis Tournament : Failla’s Geography Lesson Tough to Pass

For Cal State Long Beach’s Greg Failla, the veneer of glamour on the professional tennis tour began to wear thin at the stop last summer in Little Rock, Ark.

Or, was it Tyler, Tex.?

Or, maybe, at Lafayette, La.?

Failla gives his vote to the third choice, where he spent the week watching ambulances pull up to the court area and pull away with fellow competitors inside.

“It must have been at least twice a day the ambulance would come to the court,” Failla said. “Lafayette was the worst, being right by the Gulf. It was so humid. On TV, they’d say, ‘Don’t stay in the sun longer than 10 to 15 minutes.’ And we were playing two- and three-hour matches.”

Failla, a junior at Long Beach, defeated the top-seeded player at Lafayette in a three-hour match. He felt fine. He had plenty of water during the match and had eaten a banana during a changeover.

He returned to where he was staying and sat down to eat. But he sat there a lot longer than he wanted. He started having cramps and couldn’t move.

“I’ve never been through anything like that,” he said. “My doubles partner just about saved my life. My cheeks were even cramping. They called the ambulance for me and we went to the hospital.”

But it could have been worse.

“I could have lost the match,” Failla said.

Even so, his return to college tennis, in somewhat more comfortable surroundings, was a welcome one. Unlike his teammates, Richard Bergh and Patrick Hultgren, Failla chose to stay in school rather than turn professional.

And now, he seems on the verge of establishing himself in the upper echelon of the college game.

Last weekend, Failla reached the final of an Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn.-sanctioned tournament in Austin, Tex., losing to LSU’s Billy Uribe. Along the way, Failla upset Pepperdine’s Andrew Sznajder, who is the top-seeded player in this week’s Volvo-Collegiate Championships at UCLA’s L.A. Tennis Center.

Failla and Sznajder, however, are in opposite sides of the draw here and can’t meet until the final. Sznajder won his first-round match Thursday against Clemson’s Brian Page, 6-4, 7-5, and Failla defeated Bret Garnett of Southwest Louisiana, 6-4, 6-4.

Last season, Failla finished No. 20 in the country, and the 49ers were No. 5. Long Beach gained attention by reaching the No. 2 spot and by stopping UCLA’s home-winning streak at 49. When Coach Larry Easley stepped down and moved to Atlanta to pursue his business interests, some thought the 49ers might slip in the rankings again. But Failla points out he and Pat Crow had the best winning percentages last year, and, a promising prospect from Spain will be playing for Long Beach this year.

“I think we’re always going to be considered a darkhorse,” Failla said, smiling. “We have just six courts at Long Beach. There’s no big stadium. Then, our clubhouse is a place we call the shack. It’s about 10 feet wide and 20 feet long with posters of Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors in there.

“It’s the oldest building on campus and it used to be the original bookstore. It looks bad, but it’s home.”

Today, in the second round, Failla will play freshman David Wheaton of Stanford. Wheaton defeated seventh-seeded Olivier Lorin of Oklahoma, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, in another first-round match.

The last time Wheaton and Failla played was two years ago in the semifinals of the National Hardcourt tournament in the 18-and-under division and Failla won that match.

“I’m sure he’ll still want revenge,” Failla said.

Said Wheaton: “Yeah, I suppose revenge two years later would be all right, even if it wouldn’t be as good as revenge the next day.”

Tournament Notes

USC’s John Carras took advantage of his good luck--actually, someone else’s bad luck--and upset third-seeded Shelby Cannon of Tennessee, 6-1, 6-1, in a first-round match. Carras got a spot in the 32-player draw when SMU’s Tim Trigueiro withdrew Thursday morning. Trigueiro, who is from Santa Barbara and played for UCLA last year, woke up in the middle of the night and felt a severe pain in his foot and spent the day on crutches. . . . UC Irvine’s Trevor Kronemann also got in because of someone else’s injury--Patrick McEnroe of Stanford--but wasn’t as lucky in his opening match, losing 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 to Trinity’s Mauricio Silva. . . . USC’s Eric Amend upset eighth-seeded Billy Uribe of LSU, 6-3, 6-3.