San Clemente’s Roditi a Quick Study

David Roditi lives in the southern-most reaches of Orange County. His parents live in his native Manzanillo, Mexico, a resort town on the Pacific Ocean.

Roditi came to the United States to live with Bob Clauson, to study tennis and learn English.

Neither has been an especially easy discipline to master, though Roditi, a sophomore at San Clemente High School, has carved out a niche for himself in each.

Since coming to the United States before his freshman season, Roditi has quickly become one of the county’s top players. He also has moved into a general English class.

A year ago, Roditi surprised many by winning the South Coast League singles championship and earning a second-team spot on The Times’ all-county team.

“I’m very proud of that,” he said. “It was surprising. I didn’t think I’d do that well.”

This season, he sat out the Tritons’ nonleague matches, preferring to wait for the more talented South Coast League players. In his season debut against Capistrano Valley last Friday, Roditi swept his singles sets, 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.

Roditi is progressing just as quickly in the classroom. He is as comfortable chatting with his sister in English as he is with a visitor to the San Clemente campus.

It wasn’t always that way.

Roditi’s mother, was born in the United States and speaks fluent English, but David knew only the “basics,” as he puts it, when he arrived.

“In the first few weeks,” he said, “I would call someone to talk and the answering machine would come on and I wouldn’t know what to say.”

But now he’s well on his way to mastering the language. Roditi lasted only a few weeks in his English-as-a-second-language class at Dana Hills before being placed into a general English class.

Less than two years ago, Roditi came to the United States toting a two-handed backhand and a two-handed forehand. His serve, uncorked from a 5-foot-5 frame, was hardly worth a second glance. And Clauson found Roditi’s tennis game in need of a major overhaul. But the 54-year-old juniors tennis coach, saw something he liked. Actually, he’d known Roditi for quite some time, having been introduced when Roditi was a 10-year-old playing in summer tournaments in Southern California.

Clauson made an offer that Roditi and his mother, who accompanied her son on the trip, couldn’t refuse. “If you ever want David to come here to go to school,” Clauson told them, “let me know and he can live with me.”

The Roditis accepted Clauson’s offer and David began attending Dana Hills in the fall of 1988. His sister, Sandra, also came, but his parents stayed in Manzanillo to run the family’s restaurant.

Then Roditi and Clauson went back to the basics, starting with Roditi’s two-handed grip.

“It usually takes a couple of years to pull one of those hands off, let alone two,” said Clauson, who had Roditi using a one-handed backhand and forehand by the time the high school season began last March.

At Dana Hills, Roditi spent much of the season playing doubles while the older players filled out the team’s singles roster. His improvement was dramatic, however, ending with the South Coast League singles title.

But Clauson, who is Roditi’s legal guardian, moved to San Clemente. And Roditi had to leave behind the superior team at Dana Hills, where the Dolphins were 18-4 and advanced to the Southern Section 4-A semifinals last season.

But Roditi has adjusted to the move, Clauson says.

“He just adapts so well,” Clauson said. “He’s a 16-year-old, who goes about everything like a professional. He’s a very fine young man.”