TENNIS / T. C. PORTER : Late Arrivals Fuel a Comeback at Pierce

When the final California junior college men’s team rankings for tennis were released last Friday, Pierce was tied for third.

For the Brahmas, that was reason to celebrate.

Pierce began the season without several key veterans. Bob Saltzman, the top singles player, was out because of an injury to his right shoulder that has yet to be diagnosed. Mike Cheshmazar and Arthur Mack were missing because they misinterpreted scholar-athlete guidelines and were not enrolled in enough classes to remain eligible.

A fourth player, Mikael Rudolfsen, chose to use the season as a redshirt year.

But Pierce’s misfortune eventually gave way to a stroke of good luck. Casper Neilsen arrived from Denmark shortly before the season and became the Brahmas’ top player. Vanja Nadeli, the Burroughs High graduate who was supposed to receive a scholarship to another school, transferred to Pierce when that school dropped its tennis program.

That duo helped Pierce win its first Western State Conference title in three years.

“I never know who’s coming here,” Pierce Coach Paul Xanthos said. “Casper showed up a month before the season and said, ‘Take me.’ I didn’t even know about Vanja until later.

“We’re drawing from such a large area and still we had only eight players on the team, where I used to have 30. Maybe a lot of the local players thought it would be too tough.”

Neilsen grew up near Copenhagen and moved to Woodland Hills to broaden his experience before entering engineering school. His tennis coach, Hayward Butler, knew Xanthos and recommended Pierce.

Neilsen ranked 23rd in the final state poll. Three other Pierce players also made their way into the top 50--Nadeli, at No. 27; Johnson Chen, 28, and Roger Vig, 43.

“They were deep all the way down the lineup,” Glendale Coach Bob Donaghy said.

Xanthos has been no stranger to success in his 27 years at Pierce. The Brahmas, who had never won a conference title before Xanthos showed up, have won 21 with him.

But this season marked a rejuvenation for a program that had finished third in the WSC the past two seasons.

“We were in a little slump,” Xanthos said. “It’s good to be back.”

Internationalism: Neilsen moved from Sweden to the United States because he wanted to “experience something different,” he said.

Judging from his impressions of Southern California, he came to the right place.

“Right when I came, I thought, ‘The air is killing me,’ ” he said “It took me more than a month to get used to it, it’s so bad. I look forward to breathing some good air. . . .

“Americans drive like crazy, on freeways especially. Nowhere in Europe do people use the fast lane like they do here. Americans get on the freeway and head straight for the left lane, then they slow down. People have to move around them to pass. It’s ridiculous. . . .”

But there are trade-offs.

“I like the weather,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to wear shorts all year.

“I’ve learned a lot tennis-wise. When you play three hours a day, you should.”

As autumn turns to winter in Denmark, tennis moves indoors. That means waiting for a court to become available, then leaving at the prescribed time.

Finding court time has not been a problem in Southern California, but Neilsen still struggled at first, primarily because he was accustomed to playing on the clay surfaces that are popular in Denmark.

“It’s a lot harder playing on these concrete surfaces,” he said. “It was a shock. You have to be more aggressive, have to play the net. On clay, you can use your running game.”

Neilsen has applied to an engineering school in Copenhagen, so his days on the hard courts and frantic freeways could be numbered.

Add internationalism: Ashot Smbatyan was the slowest player on Glendale College’s team. And in the weight room, he was one of the weakest.

“He’s 6-foot-3,” Donaghy said, “but we’re not talking about any kind of specimen here.”

When he joined the Glendale team in November of 1990, Smbatyan had not played regularly in years. A season later, he ranked eighth in the state.

“He has excellent hand-eye coordination,” said Donaghy in explaining Smbatyan’s rise. “And he is quick.”

But talent wasn’t his only asset. The 26-year-old from Yerevan, the capital of newly independent Armenia, is also a tireless worker who was willing to adapt his game from a clay-court style to hard-court tennis.

But not all the adapting took place on the court.

“There has been a lot of teaching to do,” Donaghy said. “Things like tipping in the restaurant and what level to get angry when someone cuts in front of you on the freeway. Things like dealing with bureaucracy at school.

“It would be the same if any of us were dropped off in Moscow.”

Last add internationalism: Smbatyan was one of nine foreigners to place in the top 14 in the final state poll. Other countries represented included Mexico, Norway, Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and New Zealand.

Growing up: Chris Minor used to hop on the train every other week or so for the winding, 2 1/2-hour trip from Oceanside to Chatsworth, where his parents live.

Minor, ranked 13th among 16-year-olds in Southern California, has aged greatly since leaving the Valley six months ago. He left home in January to enroll at Lee Merry and Woody Blocker’s tennis camp at Canyon Hills Tennis and Racquet Club in Escondido.

“The more you’re away from your parents, the more they mean to you,” he said during final-exam week at San Pasqual High. “I think it will be better when we’re back together. We will appreciate being together.”

Even though Minor’s sophomore season has ended and he has moved back to his parents’ home, Minor will spend a good part of his summer on the road.

Already this year, Minor has reached the round of 16 at the Easter Bowl tournament in Florida and the finals of a tournament in North Carolina.

This summer there will be trips to a tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich., where the national junior rankings are established, as well as events in Jackson, Miss., and Nashville, Tenn.