El Toro’s Johnny France Comes Up Empty : Tennis: Newport Harbor’s Geoff Abrams defeats his hungry opponent in Ojai tournament.

El Toro’s Johnny France couldn’t have picked a worse day to skip his bowl of Wheaties. After surviving a 2 1/2-hour, three-set match against Mission Viejo’s Brian Gruner, France was asked to beat Newport Harbor’s Geoff Abrams, the top-seeded player in the boys’ interscholastic division of the Ojai Valley tournament.

France wasn’t quite up to the task. After winning the first game Friday, he dropped the next 12 and bowed out of Ojai, 6-1, 6-0, in the quarterfinals.

“I only had about 45 minutes in between matches and I had no breakfast,” France said. “All I had were two bananas all day.”

It showed. By the end, France was barely able to get his returns back to the net.

“He drained me,” France said of Abrams. “I’m barely standing right now.”

Abrams could tell his opponent lacked energy.

“All these matches up here get to you after awhile,” Abrams said.

But not much has affected Abrams during the first two days here. Abrams has not dropped a set in four matches since being seeded first in the division hours before the tournament began. Abrams was moved from fifth to first in the draw when Phillip Tseng of North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake dropped out.

Instead of feeling pressure as the top-seeded player, Abrams has thrived on the challenge.

“I loved it when it happened,” he said. “It was great. I love all the attention.”

France, a senior, had hoped to attract a little more attention this week by making an appearance in the semifinals or finals.

“A couple coaches, UC Irvine’s and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s, have seen me up here, but it would have been nice to play at Libbey Park,” France said.

But until France passes the Scholastic Aptitude Test, he won’t be playing anywhere except at a community college. He scored a 690, 10 points short of passing his SATs last year and is taking the test again in June.

“I think taking that test is a lot more intense than playing in a tennis tournament,” France said.

There wasn’t much intensity from France on Friday. A couple times he yelled, “Come on Johnny, get into the match,” but it didn’t do much good. France never appeared to get into a rhythm and he had no luck breaking Abrams’ service.

“If you return his serve well, everything will follow from there,” France said. “But he’s just so big, it’s tough.”

How big?

“When we shook hands, I think came up to about his shoulders,” France said of the 6-foot-4 Abrams, who is only a sophomore.

Mater Dei’s Laura Ruben was also looking up at her opponent, Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks, and she didn’t have any better luck than France. Although her match was closer--she lost 6-3, 6-2 in the girls’ 18 quarterfinals--Ruben never seriously threatened the No. 1-seeded Bleszynski, who is nearly 6 feet tall.

“I had some chances to close out some games, but I relaxed a little too much,” Ruben said. “She went for a little more too and her serve was a big advantage (Friday).”

Ruben was the last Orange County player in the girls’ 18. Sarah Hawkins of Newport Harbor was beaten by Barbara Valkova of Bakersfield, 6-1, 6-2, in the round of 16. Amanda Hastings-Phillips of Laguna Beach was beaten by Ruben in the round of 16, 6-3, 6-4. In the girls’ 18 doubles, El Modena’s Brandi Freudenberg and Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Amanda Augustus will play top-seeded Nicole London and Amanda Basica of Peninsula in today’s final.

The biggest upset occurred in the girls’ 16 division where top-seeded Faye DeVera of Villa Park was beaten by Laguna Beach’s Michelle Bray, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

In the boys’ 16s, Sunny Hills sophomore Joseph Gilbert will face teammate John Han in today’s semifinals. In the boys’ interscholastic, Abrams will play La Jolla’s Jon Gilula one semifinal and Sunny Hills’ Kevin Kim plays Santa Barbara’s Nathan Jackmon in the other semifinal.