Roditi Defeats Partner Gilles in Kramer Final

David Roditi wasn’t happy about the prospect of playing his friend and doubles partner Graham Gilles in the finals of the first Jack Kramer Invitational.

But in the end, his friendship with Gilles turned out to be a blessing. Roditi, a senior at San Clemente High, used some inside information about Gilles’ backhand to his advantage in beating the No. 1 seed from Laguna Beach, 7-5, 6-4, in the boys’ 18 finals Monday at Canyon Hills Racquet Club.

“I knew his backhand wasn’t his best shot,” said Roditi, who was unseeded in the 16-player field. “So I tried to break down his backhand. It worked well.”

Gilles’ backhand began to falter when he needed it most. Serving at 5-5 in the first set, Gilles made three unforced errors to his backhand side. At break point, Gilles double-faulted to give the game to Roditi.

Roditi, who has signed a letter of intent to play tennis at Texas Christian University next year, closed out the first set with a lunging forehand drop volley at the net, but scored two of his points in the 12th game off Gilles’ backhand.

Heading into the second set, Gilles realized he was in trouble.

“David played a good strategy,” Gilles said. “He pressure my backhand. If it’s not working for me, it usually doesn’t come back. Once you miss with it a couple times, you start thinking about it.”

Gilles began thinking a lot in the second set, especially in the seventh game. While serving at 3-3, Gilles’ backhand contributed to six points Roditi points. Roditi eventually won the game when Gilles hit a backhand ground stroke wide.

But was not only Gilles giving points away, Roditi was doing a fair job of earning them. He made several acrobatic overhead smashes and even pulled off a winner from his backhand after running down a Gilles lob and turning 360 degrees.

“I’ve played him a lot in practice and this match is up there with the best I’ve seen from David,” Gilles said.

Said Roditi: “Every point he won, he won because he earned it. I didn’t miss many shots. In fact, I didn’t miss much the entire tournament. I played very smart.”

The match took about 90 minutes, but Roditi said it could have easily lasted longer without the presence of an umpire.

“I’m glad there was a lines judge. If there wasn’t, we’d have been playing balls that were out a foot.”

Next for Gilles, who has been working out with Jose Higueras and Jim Courier in Palm Desert, is the satellite circuit.

“All of the colleges I wanted to go to didn’t have any scholarships,” said Gilles, who preferred to play at Pepperdine, USC, UCLA or UC Irvine. “I’m going to try it for a year and see what happens.”

But before he tries the satellites, Gilles might want to work on that backhand.

Top-seeded Glen Weiner of Cypress won the boys’ 16 division of the United States Tennis Assn.’s tournament with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over third-seeded Ryan Wolters of San Jose.

Serra High’s Vo Chu capped an incredible three days by taking third place in the boys’ 16s with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Mike Jessop of Saratoga.

Chu was an alternate in the 32-player national field and wasn’t notified he would be playing until Friday night when Del Mar’s Taryn Burgk pulled out with an injury.

“I didn’t think of myself as an alternate,” said Chu, who lost to Wolters in the semifinals, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. “I had played against a lot of these players in the 14s and I thought I would play well.”