Mann’s Solo Decision Yielded a Net Gain : City Section tennis: Taft sophomore, after forgoing baseball, will play today for the singles title.

Three years ago, a bright future in baseball seemed to await Dylan Mann, a Little League all-star as a pitcher and shortstop.

But Mann felt the urge to go off alone, and today the Taft High sophomore will be on his own at The Racquet Centre in Studio City, putting an undefeated season on the line in the sport that took him away from baseball.

Mann (15-0), in his first season as a high school tennis player, will face top-seeded Robert Williams (16-0), a sophomore from Dorsey, in the 2 p.m. singles final of the City Section individual championships.

“I loved baseball so much better than tennis,” Mann, 15, said. “There’s a lot more to baseball. There’s the social aspect. But when I got a little bit older, I realized I wanted to play for myself. I had a problem playing on a team.

“I didn’t function well on a team where they were contributing to my efforts. I like being independent. Tennis is an individual sport where I control what happens.”

Mann could not have controlled his destiny better this season. Not only is he undefeated in matches, he was 12-0 in sets during the City team tournament in which singles players competed in a single-set, round-robin format.

Although he’s a late bloomer in a sport dominated by youth, Mann has genetics on his side. His father, Eric, is a teaching pro who played three years on the professional tour. He played all the major tournaments and was ranked among the top 50 in the world in 1974.

“He was very good at baseball,” Eric Mann said of his son. “But at 12 he had to make a decision. He could have gone on and played at the next level. I was trying to persuade him into tennis but I never pushed him.”

Instead, Dylan’s youth league all-star manager did the pushing. The manager kicked Mann off the team when he skipped one practice to play in the final of a Ventura age-group tennis tournament. Now Mann is seeded eighth in the 16-and-under boys’ division by the Southern California Tennis Assn., and baseball is a memory.

At 6-foot-1, 160 pounds, Mann is an inch taller and only 15 pounds lighter than his father. He dominates most high school opponents even though his serve-and-volley game is unpolished. But Mann said he must be careful against Williams, who defeated him, 6-2, 6-2, earlier this year in an age-group tournament and is currently seeded 10th by the SCTA.

“I just never got started. I couldn’t get anything going,” Mann said of his loss to Williams. “He didn’t let me get on my game. He played a good match.

“But I learned from that match. I’m going to have to keep more balls in play. I’m not going to be able to go for it a lot, because he plays an aggressive game and he makes you pay for unforced errors. If I hit myself out of position, he’ll take advantage of it. He’s a smart player.

“But I feel like I’m hitting the ball well.”

The consensus among City coaches is that Mann already shows the potential to play in the Division I college ranks. Taft Coach Marvin Jones knew the first time he saw Mann that Taft could have its first City champion in his 10 years as coach.

“He’s got all the tools necessary to make that happen,” Jones said. “If you have the skills and the dedication, good things can happen. And he has both.”

Playing high school tennis for the first time this year, Mann didn’t know what to expect. “But I didn’t expect to win every match,” he said.

Win or lose today, Mann said, the City singles title won’t carry much significance in the long run.

“I’m not sure it really means anything in the tennis world,” Mann said. “In terms of goals, it’s not so much a goal of mine as a tennis player. It’s more of a personal goal. I would like to win. I think it would be pretty cool.”