Palisades Graduate Willens Is Among Competitors in Tennis Tournament at Riviera

Heather Willens will have a home-court advantage when she competes in the Riviera All-American Championships which begin today at the Riviera Tennis Club.

Willens, a Stanford junior and Palisades High graduate, is seeded eighth and will play Susan Gilchrist of Texas in a first-round match at 10:30 a.m. today. Last year, returning to where she had “played every day of my life for 10 years” and buoyed by supportive fans, Willens reached the tournament’s semifinals, losing to teammate and eventual champion Sandra Birch.

The tournament is one of four annually that make up the collegiate grand slam. Organizers are billing this year’s field as the strongest ever, as 16 of the top 20 players in the preseason Volvo Tennis/Collegiate Rankings are in the 32-player field, including top-ranked Lisa Albano of California. Tracey Hiete of Duke, a Pacific Palisades resident and Marymount High graduate, received a wild-card invitation into the main draw and will meet Lynn Staley of Texas A & M in another first-round match today.

For Willens, the tournament is her first formal competition since May’s NCAA championships, where she helped the Cardinal to its sixth consecutive team championship, reached the third round of singles, finished the year ranked 17th and was named an All-American.

Willens stayed away from tennis nearly all summer, except for two doubles matches with a 67-year-old man who she described as a “high-C” player--President Bush.

Through family connections, Willens and Bush first played when the President was visiting Southern California in June. Bush then told Willens to get in touch for another match if she was ever in the Washington area. As it would happen, Willens spent the summer working as a research analyst at the Center for Defense Information. The White House contacted Willens, who played against Bush and Andre Agassi at Camp David.

Willens, who turned 20 Oct. 11, came to Stanford after winning the City Section championship in 1987 and 1988 and two U.S. Tennis Assn. national junior doubles titles. As a Stanford freshman in 1990, she was 26-2 in dual matches and 36-6 overall.

“She’s made good steady progress, just the kind of progress you’d like to see someone make, rather than go up and down like a yo-yo,” Stanford Coach Frank Brennan said. “She’s been getting a little bit better every year. As she gets a little more confidence she plays better and as she plays better, she gets a little more confidence.”

Brennan described Willens as a backcourt player, who can cover much of the court and has an equally strong forehand and backhand.

“She’s a tough kid who just says, ‘Give me your best shot. I can take it,’ ” Brennan said. “She overwhelms you mentally and hardly ever plays a bad or careless point.”