National Collegiate Tennis Tournament : Good Returns Net USC’s Failla Another Title

Greg Failla, who has 10 speeds on his bicycle and about the same number of speeds on his groundstrokes, stuck to just 2 speeds Sunday on the tennis court.

Fast and faster.

USC’s Failla defeated UCLA’s Bill Behrens, 7-5, 6-2, to win the men’s singles title of the National Collegiate Tennis Classic at Shadow Mountain Resort.

Karen Shin of California beat Sandra Birch of Stanford, 6-4, 6-3, to win the women’s singles title.

Shin, a senior, had reached the final of the National Clay Court at Hilton Head in December, so she thought her victory very important.

“It’s a real big confidence-booster, to be sure,” she said.

For Failla, a fifth-year senior, it was his second major college tournament victory in succession. The other came at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla.

Failla never roamed too far from the baseline against Behrens, an impressive serve-and-volley freshman who got to the final even though he was not seeded in this, the first big college event of the year.

After losing last year in the semifinals, Failla said winning this time was a pretty fine ride.

“It’s like cycling and you have a 1,500-foot climb,” he said. “Once you get to the top, it’s quite a feeling.”

Failla got there by changing his strategy.

Down 3-2 in the first set, he decided to become more aggressive returning serves. Instead of just trying to get the ball over the net, Failla began loading up on Behren’s first serve and either putting it at his feet or in the corners.

“I was really keying on his serve,” Failla said. “I wanted to step in, catch the ball high and explode on it,” he said. “And I’m not a person who chips and charges. I like to come in with the heat.”

On a sunny but quite cool day in the desert, heat was in short supply, but Behrens admitted that Failla’s strategy worked.

“I had problems with my serve only because he was returning so well,” Behrens said.

But it was not Failla’s return that caused Behren to double-fault at a crucial point in the first set.

At 5-5 and 3-3 (there was no-add scoring), Behrens sent his second serve long.

Failla served out the first set, although serving was not that easy to do for either player. There were 10 service breaks in all, with Failla breaking Behren six times.

Although he is 6-feet tall, Failla weighs only 135 pounds and he wants to add some weight before he turns pro after the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament in May. Failla, a transfer from Cal State Long Beach, was ranked No. 4 in the preseason.

He has played two Grand Prix events. Failla lost in the first round at Scottsdale in 1987, but he beat Marty Davis in the first round at Indianapolis last year.

Behrens, from Rancho Palos Verdes, is 6-2 and 180 pounds. He got to the final the hard way by winning a difficult three-set semifinal match against seeded player Pat Crow of Cal State Long Beach.

Shin’s victory over Birch was a minor upset. Shin, seeded behind the top-seeded Birch, started slowly, then picked up speed with a powerful weapon, her two-fisted backhand.

Shin said she noticed that Birch tended to run around her backhand to hit forehands, so Shin decided to hit the ball deep to Birch’s backhand.

Only on short balls would Shin hit to Birch’s backhand side. Birch, who had just changed her backhand grip from two-handed to one hand, seemed unnerved to see so many balls coming to her backhand.

In her first match, Shin fought off four match points and went on to defeat Anya Kochoff of USC, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5.

“I thought it was over right then,” Shin said of the four match points. “Every match I won after that, I was just happy to be there, because I thought I was done.”