TENNIS / WENDY WITHERSPOON : Tarzana’s Weiss Shares Focus at Sectional

Life for 10-year-olds can be pretty tough. And when the cameras are rolling, it can be even worse.

Just ask Nicholas Weiss of Tarzana.

Weiss won the Southern California Tennis Assn. junior sectional championships in the boys’ 10 singles with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over his friend Donte Haynes of Bellflower on June 29.

Weiss and Haynes team up for doubles, and they grabbed more than just the attention of the crowd in the doubles final. They were under the spotlight of an ESPN camera crew.

In a May 21 article in the New York Times titled “Youth Sports: The Sins of Tennis Parents,” Samantha Stevenson wrote about the problems of parents pressuring their children to excel in junior tennis. Stevenson focused on Southern California because it has produced many of the nation’s best players.

One example, according to Stevenson, is Fred Haynes, father of Donte.

According to the article, Fred Haynes said he had hit his son, acknowledged that he made him run five miles after a match, and told his son to quit a match he wasn’t winning.

Stevenson’s article set in motion a chain of events that led to ESPN’s decision to work on a related story.

Ironically, the thing Stevenson wrote about--pressuring kids--was compounded by ESPN camera crews at the 10-under doubles final where Weiss and Haynes lost in two sets.

“(Weiss and Haynes) were supposed to win in the doubles, but they didn’t and I think it was because there was so much pressure,” said Jerrie Weiss, Nicholas’ mother.

Jerrie said her son and Haynes could barely talk to each other during the match because the camera was so close. Also, she said that parents asked the cameraman to move back, but he never did.

Donte and his 7-year-old sister, Angela, will be featured on a segment of a show titled “Outside the Lines: The Sport of Money.” The hour show is scheduled to air on ESPN at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Unfamiliar territory: One girls’ 18 semifinal of the SCTA sectional tournament was like a walk in a neighborhood park for the competitors.

Second-seeded Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks and third-seeded Stacey Jellen of Calabasas, who practice together each week, played each other in a semifinal June 28. Jellen won, 7-6, 6-3.

But a less familiar opponent haunted the final.

Anne Mall of Laguna Niguel is a collegiate player but she also can play junior tennis because she is only 17. Mall, a 1991 U.S. Open junior finalist, was a candidate for one of the top three singles berths this season as a true freshman at UCLA, before she injured her ankle and sat out most of the season.

Mall didn’t play junior tennis this year so she was unseeded in the sectionals. But Mall was never forced to three sets in the tournament and she defeated Jellen, 6-2, 6-3, in the final.

Zone tournament: Jessica Kessler, who made it to the finals in the under-14 division of the SCTA sectional tournament, is looking forward to relaxing.

It’s not that she is thinking of laying down her racquet. Rather, she is looking forward to playing in a team environment.

So far in Kessler’s career, she has played junior tennis, which is very “individualistic,” as Kessler’s mother puts it. Rarely, in junior tennis, do players have the opportunity to compete on a team, so all the pressure is on the individual. Players feel pressure to do well because junior tournaments count toward the national rankings.

On the court, at least, Kessler handles the pressure well. Top-seeded going into the sectional tournament, Kessler lost in the final to third-seeded Kristina Triska of Mission Viejo, 6-2, 6-2.

But there soon will be ample opportunities for Kessler to play team tennis. Her finish at sectionals enabled her to qualify for the USTA boys’ and girls’ under-14 zone tournament in Asheville, N.C., Sunday through Thursday.

In the zone tournament, players are grouped into five-player teams and play a team tennis format. Kessler of Studio City will be grouped with other players from Southern California.

And upon her return, Kessler will set her sights on another team--Beverly Hills High. Kessler, who graduated from Beverly Vista Middle School this spring, must try out for the Beverly Hills team after she returns from the zone tournament.

“I’ve never experienced playing on a team. It’s going to be fun to do something like that, rather than what I’ve experienced in the past,” Kessler said.

Add zone: Other area players who will play in the under-14 zone tournament include: Erin Boisclair of Agoura, Kirsten Gross of Calabasas, Amanda Cey of Woodland Hills and Daylan Mann of Canoga Park. Boisclair and Gross played doubles in the sectionals, losing in the final to Gee Gee Garvin of Vista and Triska, 7-5, 6-0.

Unlucky draw: Although he has been playing for only three years, Darren Potkey of Ventura already has many tennis accomplishments.

When his family moved from New Hampshire, Potkey fell in love with tennis and gave up soccer, baseball and basketball. In his first year in the 16s division, he began the season ranked 99th in Southern California and ended No. 42. Last year--his second year of competition--he was No. 8.

As a result, hopes were high for this year’s sectional. But he lost in the first round of the boys’ 18 on June 25, thanks in part to an unfavorable draw: Ross Loel of Oceanside. Loel, who just completed his freshman season at the University of Minnesota, is playing in the tournament because he is still 18.

Breaking in: The Assn. of Tennis Professionals tour is a lot like an elite club--getting together at each tournament and accepting newcomers only after a long process of working up the ladder.

The Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles wild-card pre-qualifying tournament offers a fleeting chance for an unknown player to break into an ATP tour event. Competitors normally must have a certain number of ATP points to qualify to play in ATP tour tournaments. The wild-card tournament, however, offers players with no ATP points the chance to play against the nobility.

The wild-card tournament will be held July 20-26 at The Racquet Centre in Studio City. Two finalists in singles and the winning doubles team will earn berths in the Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles qualifying tournament Aug. 1-2 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Top area players competing in the wild-card tournament include: Steve Wier (Westlake Village), Bruce Mann-Son-Hing (Glendale), David Manpearl (Encino), Rafael Huerta (Chatsworth) and Casey Wood (Sepulveda).