TENNIS / T. C. PORTER : Hillman Witnesses Tremendous Growth of Junior Sectionals

Jim Hillman sat near center court at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley, the site of this weekend’s Southern California Junior Sectional Championships, discussing the more memorable matches in his 20 years as tournament director.

Quickly coming to mind was the boys’ 18 championship in 1988, when Michael Chang overcame a 5-2 deficit in the third game to defeat Chuck Adams and win the title.

In looking back, Hillman remembers a smaller tournament. This year’s sectional has drawn a record 2,196 participants, including numerous area players.

“I remember not too long ago, six years ago, when that number was 1,300,” Hillman said. “And I thought we were doing good then.”

The number has increased each year, from 2,029 last year and 1,880 two years ago. During the 10-day tournament that began last Saturday, 2,096 matches will be played at six sites.

During the tournament’s first two days, 890 matches were played.

This is the 14th year the sectional has been played at Los Caballeros. In the beginning, Caballeros had 44 courts, and every sectional match was played there.

“One year we scheduled 40 doubles matches at one time and found out it was going to be too much,” Hillman said. “That’s 160 kids running around. Not a good idea.

“That was an administrative--what should I call it?--blunder.”

There are other reasons the sectional now includes other venues. Los Caballeros has added condominiums and down-scaled to 30 courts.

And there are more members at Los Caballeros than in the early days, so the sectional matches must be played on only 15 courts and completed by 5 p.m.

Other facilities used for the tournament are Santa Ana Tennis Center, Mile Square Recreation Center in Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa Tennis Center, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Heritage Park in Irvine.

All finals will be played Monday at Los Caballeros.

Well represented: Of the Valley’s seven seeded players in the sectional, three compete in the girls’ 18 division.

Two of them--No. 2-seeded Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks and No. 3 Stacey Jellen of Calabasas--practice together once a week.

“I haven’t lost to her in a tournament,” Jellen said, “but then again I haven’t played her in a tournament in a long time.”

Bleszynski and Jellen could meet in this year’s semifinals. Not that either is looking forward to it.

“I’d rather not play her because we know our games so well,” Bleszynski said. “It would be difficult.”

Bleszynski also has at least one other match to worry about. If she reaches today’s quarterfinals, she will face Keri Phebus, the girls’ 16 champion two years ago.

“That will be dealt with first,” Bleszynski said.

This is Jellen’s second year in the girls’ 18 division even though she just turned 17. She moved up to the 18s one year early and finished second in the 1991 Southern California Tennis Assn. junior rankings.

Jellen moved up to “get better matches.” Bleszynski, 16, who moved recently from West Los Angeles, is playing up this year for the same reason. She finished No. 1 in the 16 division in 1991.

Krissy Hamilton of Agoura Hills is seeded fourth in girls’ 18.

Other seeded players from the Valley are Derek Pope of Ojai (No. 4 in boys’ 16), Bob and Mike Bryan of Camarillo (Nos. 2 and 5 in boys’ 14) and Erin Boisclair of Agoura (No. 2 in girls’ 14).

No luck of the draw: Rafael Huerta of Chatsworth High, the City Section individual champion, failed to make the final 32 in the boys’ 18. He was eliminated Wednesday by Chris Brown of El Toro, 6-2, 6-4, in the final round of qualifying for the main draw.

“I was definitely disappointed not to have gone farther,” he said. “It’s kind of like luck how a lot of guys made the main draw. Sometimes two good players are matched up together, and only one is going to advance.”

Huerta pointed out that he has defeated two players who advanced to the main draw: Susumu Sugai of Torrance and Steve Tallakson of Oak View. Both were eliminated Thursday in the first round of the main draw.

The City Section is represented by Taft’s Jason Weiss, runner-up to Huerta in the City tournament.

Weiss received a bye into the main draw of boys’ 16 and defeated Jimmy Kim of Redondo Beach, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, Thursday to advance to the round of 16.