His Power Play Works Wonders : Racquetball: Fountain Valley’s Tim Doyle, ranked third on pro circuit, is among favorites in tournament starting today in Anaheim and Fullerton.

Tim Doyle started his racquetball career with a true home-court advantage.

His parents built a racquetball club in Buffalo in 1974, and Doyle, then 5, immediately took a liking to the sport.

When he saw his first professional tournament a year later, he vowed to become a professional.

After an amateur career in which he won the national junior championship in 1987, six national junior doubles titles and national singles titles in 1989 and 1990, the Fountain Valley resident met his goal in 1990, and is now one of the pro tour’s rising stars, ranked third nationally.

Doyle will be competing in the VIC Pro-Am racquetball championships, which begin today and continue through Sunday at L.A. Fitness in Anaheim and Racquetball World in Fullerton.

The sport has taken Doyle west, from snowy upstate New York to sunny Southern California, with an interim stop in Columbus Ohio.

When Doyle was in high school, he would drive 5 1/2 hours to compete in tournaments on a semipro circuit in Ohio. When he graduated in 1987, he moved to Columbus to eliminate the commute.

Lacking effective competition after “outgrowing” that circuit, Doyle moved to Fountain Valley in 1990, so he could train with two players from Huntington Beach who are currently ranked in the top 10--No. 9 Dave Johnson and No. 10 Brian Hawkes.

Doyle, 23, won his first professional tournament in 1990 in Salem, Ore.

“I played Jack Newman in the Round of 16,” Doyle said. “That was a match I was worried about. He had beaten me several times before.

“I went into that match thinking if I could get through that match, I’d be OK for the rest of the tournament. I ended up blowing him out in three straight games (matches are best-of-five, with games played to 11 points.) I only lost one more game in the tournament.”

Doyle also won a Chicago tournament last year and was ranked second overall in the 1990-91 season.

Doyle’s forte is a strong power game.

“That’s always been my advantage,” he said. “When I was growing up, I was a little bit bigger than the other kids. That’s what got me through when I was a junior. As I stopped growing and started hitting the ball the same as the other people, I started to work on my strength and increase my power.”

Doyle sees this week’s tournament as “one of most exciting and competitive” ever and considers Dan Obramski from Pittsburgh and Mike Ray of Hilton Head, S.C., among the players to beat.

“Dan is one of the fittest athletes on our tour,” Doyle said. “He’s extremely quick and never gets tired. Mike Ray is a southpaw, 6-2, covers a lot of court, very patient and waits for you to make mistakes.”

Racquetball is regaining the popularity the sport enjoyed from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The professional circuit has added tournaments, attracted VW Credit, Volkswagen’s financing firm, as a sponsor and drawn television coverage from cable’s Prime Network.

“(The people who played in the 1970s and early 1980s) are starting to get back involved in the game again,” Doyle said. “They’ve been able to notice that the play over the past 10 years has changed dramatically.

“The oversized racquets make the ball travel much faster than it used to. The athletes are so good and natural it’s just an attraction to see the players on the court, hitting the ball, diving and chasing down balls going 170 miles an hour.”