NCAA TENNIS : Netter, Bryan Win to Reach Men’s Final

UCLA’s Jason Netter gave a performance Saturday his grandfather would have been proud to see.

Netter, a 21-year-old junior from Beverly Hills, took three match points in the third set tiebreaker to defeat Miami’s Conny Falk in a NCAA men’s tennis championships singles semifinal, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (12-10), before 1,239 Saturday at Hyatt Grand Champions.

“My grandfather didn’t come, but he’s so nervous, he keeps calling,” Netter, unseeded and ranked 30th in the nation, said of Dick Netter, who owns a film company at which Netter worked last summer.

Falk seemed just as nervous. Serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set, he was broken by Netter and later lsot three match points. Falk, a 23-year old sophomore from Stockholm, Sweden, said he was too tense and played it too safe, the opposite of Netter, who became increasingly aggressive in the tiebreaker.

“I figured if I was going to lose, I’d make him beat me instead of me playing tentatively,” Netter said.

Netter will face University of Texas sophomore Steve Bryan today for the singles championship. Bryan, ranked No. 3 nationally and seeded alphabetically in the five-through-eight group, defeated heralded Stanford freshman Jared Palmer, 6-0, 6-1, in only 42 minutes.

“I got up, ate breakfast, then started warming up,” Netter said. “But I wasn’t even finished with my warmup when Palmer’s match was over. I couldn’t believe it.”

In contrast, Netter and Falk’s match, with long rallies from the baseline, lasted 2 hours 22 minutes.

“Before the tiebreaker, Conny started to play tentatively when he was serving for the match at 5-4, so I just stuck with him,” Netter said. “I missed a couple of easy shots, but I told myself to concentrate on every shot, no matter what the score.”

Netter broke Falk at 15-40 with a passing shot, to tie the set at 5-5. Both held serve to force the tiebreaker.

Netter survived Falk’s two match points and hit a crosscourt forehand to set up his first match point, serving at 8-7. Falk tied it with a forehand winner in the corner, and Netter hit a backhand wide. Falk moved ahead 9-8 and to his third match point.

“At that point, when it’s tight, all I was trying to do was make the first couple of shots,” Netter said. “There is so much pressure and I thought maybe he would give up a few easy shots, which I think he did.”

Falk made errors on the next two points, hitting a forehand long, and the other into the net, to put Netter ahead 10-9. Then Falk, serving at Netter’s match point, tied the score again with a backhand passing shot down the line.

Netter, serving at 10-10, moved ahead when Falk hit a backhand long. Falk, serving at Netter’s third match point, hit Netter’s forehand approach into the net for the match.

Netter said his match against Bryan today at noon could be likened to looking in a mirror.

“We both play the same,” he said. “Both of us run down balls and hit the short ball.”

Bryan admittedly is playing the best tennis of his life. However Palmer, the No. 2 Stanford singles player who has had arthroscopic surgery on both knees in the last five months, said he wasn’t as fit as he should be.

“It wasn’t that I was playing my game and losing; I just wasn’t playing my game, period,” said Palmer, who played nine singles matches and four doubles in nine days of the tournament. “I first had to get myself moving and try to play my game and it never worked.”

Palmer won only three points in the first set, all on his serve. In the second set, only one game went to deuce. Palmer never held serve.