SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE TENNIS TOURNAMENT : Top-Ranked Mall Falls to Unseeded Berris

Beth Berris sat in the bleachers Friday morning and watched Anne Mall flash back from 0-5 in the first set to a 7-5, 6-1 quarterfinal victory. Saturday, she was back at the same court, trying to forget it.

Berris, an unseeded 17-year-old from Lodi, managed to concentrate on the match she was playing and ignore the one playing in the back of her mind. And she upset top-seeded Mall of Laguna Niguel, 6-3, 6-3, for the championship in the 18-and-under division of the Seventeen Magazine Tournament of Champions at the Mission Viejo International Sports Complex.

“Let’s just say that match went through my mind,” Berris said. “I tried to block it out, but it was hard.”

Friday afternoon, Mall maintained the momentum, using her big first serve and some punishing ground strokes to cruise through the semifinals. She lost just three games to second-seeded Jennifer Nassar.

Saturday, however, Mall was erratic, hitting a number of shots more than a yard beyond the baseline.

“I was never able to find my rhythm,” Mall said. “The ball was just flying. I’ve got this new racquet that I’ve only had a week. I think something’s wrong with my racquet.”

She smiled. “No, really I just didn’t play good at all. And she played really well.”

Berris wasn’t spectacular, just steady. And she didn’t hurt herself. She made few unforced errors and took shots at winners when she had the good angle.

Mall tried pounding it out with her from the baseline, but usually hit one deep first. She tried to go to the net, but Berris usually passed her.

Berris broke Mall twice in the first set to take a 4-1 lead. But Mall began to show signs of life and was one point away from closing Berris’ lead to 5-4, serving with a 40-love advantage. Three Mall errors tied the game at deuce.

After 10 more deuce points, Berris closed out the first set. She had staved off eight game points.

The second set went a bit quicker, but Mall broke Berris and then held serve to temporarily recover from another 4-1 deficit. Appropriately, Mall hit an uncharacteristic looping forehand long to end the match.

“This is my first win in singles at a national event,” said Berris, ranked No. 25 in the country. “Hopefully, this will help my ranking.”

Lindsay Davenport, a 6-foot-2, 14-year-old from Palos Verdes, doesn’t have to worry about her national ranking for the time being. She secured her spot at No. 1 with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over La Jolla’s Ditta Huber in the 16s final.

Huber said her toenail broke early in the match and bothered her, but she didn’t appear to be hampered and held a 4-2 lead in the first set before Davenport reeled off four in a row. The second set was tied, 3-3, before Davenport broke Huber twice to win the match.

Huber held serve just four times in the match.

“I couldn’t serve at all,” she said. “I started to just try and spin it in, but then I ended up being worse off.”

Davenport, who won the 14s title at this tournament last year, said she wasn’t too upset about her inability to hold serve--she lost three of her first four service games--because she’s “used to being broken.”

She’s also become accustomed to finding a groove and blasting away opponents from the baseline.

“I play better when I’m down and that’s when I started hitting the angles and going down the line,” she said. “I’m streaky.”

In the 14s final, Northridge’s Meilin Tu, ranked No. 9 in the country, defeated sixth-ranked Amanda Basica from Lomita, 6-4, 6-4.