Pressure Turning Promising Young Tennis Player Away From Game : Tennis: Sarmiento, a 16-year-old from Bolivia, has become one of best players in area, but now says he needs a break.

Carlo Sarmiento, like Jennifer Capriati, has had a tennis racket in his hand since he was barely old enough to walk. And Sarmiento’s father, like Capriati’s, provided the racket.

And Sarmiento, like Capriati, may be driven from the sport at a young age.

Sarmiento was talented enough to beat much older players at an early age. By 12, he was the 14-year-old age-division champion in his native Bolivia.

Immediately after Sarmiento conquered Bolivia, George Sarmiento sold his business and land and moved his wife, daughter and son to Newport Beach in search of better competition for his son.

Carlo Sarmiento has yet to conquer this country, but he has done quite well in Southern California. At 14, Sarmiento was ranked No. 1 in the boys’ 14 division. At 16, he is the region’s second-best player in the boys’ 18 division to Huntington Beach’s Jakub Pietrowski, who has beaten Sarmiento twice this year in close matches.

Pietrowski, who recently graduated from Ocean View High and won the Southern Section singles title this year, never had to face Sarmiento in a high school match because Sarmiento, like Capriati, barely bothered to attend school.

Pietrowski and Sarmiento probably would have met again Sunday in the Southern California Sectional tournament finals, but Sarmiento won’t be playing.

For one thing, he has been declared ineligible by the Southern California Tennis Assn., which ruled that he didn’t meet certain requirements. But even if he did, it is doubtful he would have played, because Sarmiento, like Capriati, is tired of tennis, tired of being pressured, and tired of doing something he doesn’t love.

But unlike Capriati, Sarmiento has chosen religion as a diversion. Sarmiento is spending a lot of time these days at Kingdom Hall in Costa Mesa, studying the Bible and learning to become a Jehovah’s Witness.

“I’ve tried all kinds of religions, but the one I really like is Jehovah’s Witness,” Sarmiento said. “Tennis is not going to give me everlasting life. God is. I really try and search for God. That’s what gives you happiness in your heart.”

Sam Olson, who runs a junior tennis academy at the Balboa Bay Club, coached Sarmiento about 18 months and knew almost instantly that his student did not find happiness in tennis.

“A lot of times, he’d come to a lesson and just talk,” said Olson, who also coaches Fullerton’s Kevin Kim, the top-ranked 16-year-old in the nation. “Other times, he’d play for 45 minutes and then leave. Kevin Kim would finish with his lesson and then want to play for another hour.”

Though Sarmiento has beaten Kim in junior tournaments, he acknowledges Kim is more suited for the game.

“Kevin can play for six hours and I can play for maybe two,” Sarmiento said. “He’s in great shape. I’ve never been in shape. But I can still beat him. I guess that’s talent.

“If Kevin Kim and Newport Beach’s (Geoff Abrams) didn’t have school, they’d play all day. They love tennis. I like it.”

If he had a choice, Sarmiento said he might have picked soccer over tennis. But Sarmiento said his father, who played professional tennis and taught the sport in Bolivia, never gave him a choice.

“My dad kind of pushed me into tennis,” Sarmiento said. “He put a lot of pressure on me, but I know he only wanted what was best for me.”

Olson doesn’t doubt that George Sarmiento wants the best for his son, but Olson said that is part of the problem.

“My personal opinion is that Carlo is tired of tennis because he’s spoiled,” Olson said. “He’s never had to work hard. Everything’s always been given to him by his dad. If he wants to get to the next level, he sees he’d have to work really hard. He doesn’t really want to do it.”

George Sarmiento, who teaches tennis at the Balboa Bay Club with Olson, acknowledges that what Olson says is true.

“Carlo has always had everything--his shoes, his rackets, he’s traveled everywhere to play,” George Sarmiento said. “But he’s never put too much time into tennis. While all the other kids have all these coaches and work out six hours a day, Carlo plays one day a week and still beats everybody.”

But while other kids are in school, Carlo Sarmiento is often in Europe or South America playing in tournaments. He has not attended school since 1992, when he spent two months at Corona del Mar High.

“His sponsor told us he didn’t have time for school with all the travel,” George Sarmiento said. “He promised me he’d get Carlo a tutor, but he never did.”

According to Olson, Sarmiento’s sponsor, Bev Walker, never did much of anything he was supposed to. After signing Sarmiento to a five-year contract at the age of 14, Olson says Walker has broken many promises.

“He paid for a few of Carlo’s trips early on to whet their appetite,” Olson said. . “The bottom line is, he wanted to hold onto the kid to see if he was going to make it, so he could make some money. Now that he sees the kid might not make him any money, he doesn’t want to follow through with the commitment.”

Olson said Walker never followed through with his financial commitment to him.

“I coached Carlo for 18 months and was never paid a cent,” Olson said. “He wrote me three checks and they all bounced.”

George Sarmiento said he is attempting to break the last three years of his contract with Walker, who lives in England and was not available for comment.

Sarmiento says he had many offers from professional coaches who wanted to teach his son tennis, including Andre Agassi’s former coach Nick Bollettieri.

“Nick spent 45 minutes with Carlo and wanted to take him to his camp in Florida and make him a professional,” George Sarmiento said. “I would have taken the offers if we didn’t have the contract with Bev Walker.”

But even if Carlo Sarmiento had gone to Florida with Bollettieri, it’s doubtful he would have survived the rigorous demands of a tennis camp. Sometimes, Sarmiento has found it difficult to survive three-set matches. Earlier this year at a junior tournament in Whittier, Sarmiento had two match points on Pietrowski in the second set. But Pietrowski won the second set and then won the third, 6-1.

“After I won the second set, I think he just gave up,” Pietrowski said. “I don’t know why. I can’t even remember a time I could give up until the last point. If you have that chance, why let it go to waste?”

Pietrowski said Sarmiento would be wasting a talent if he decided to quit tennis.

“He’s a good all-around player,” Pietrowski said. “He’s improved a lot in the last year. It’s a shame if doesn’t play anymore.”

If Sarmiento gives up tennis, he said the game itself won’t be the reason.

“The game is real nice, but it’s all the other things that I don’t like,” he said. “The sponsors, the pressure, the gossip.”

Sarmiento said he has heard from many people that he has enough talent to make it in pro tennis.

“When I hear it from coaches, it’s fine, but my father says it too much,” Sarmiento said. “People always tell me stuff like, ‘You play so good. It’s a gift from God. Don’t waste this talent.’ Well God didn’t make this sport, and money doesn’t make people happy.”

If he wanted to play on the pro tour, Sarmiento said he could get to that level.

“I believe I can make it,” he said. “I just don’t know if I want to. I don’t know if I want to travel. It’s a tough life.”

Olson said George Sarmiento has made his son’s life that much tougher by not giving him enough space.

“I’ve had a lot of talks with George about leaving tennis on the tennis court,” Olson said. “The best way for a parent to deal with their son or daughter is to build a relationship with your kids and let the coaches decide what to do with tennis.

“A lot of times, believe it or not, a coach is more realistic than the parent. He can see what makes the kids happy. Talking about tennis all day is not what makes kids happy. There has to be a balance in life.”

George Sarmiento said he is often told by parents and coaches to give his son time away from tennis.

“A mother of another player told me, ‘Please, George, just let him alone for now,’ ” he said. “Some people have told me I have to be nice to him.”

But George Sarmiento said he and his son have a good relationship, and it is nothing like that of Jim and Mary Pierce or Stefano and Jennifer Capriati.

“We get along OK,” George Sarmiento said. “We have problems like everybody, but every father wants what’s best for his son.”

But Carlo Sarmiento says having the best life does not necessarily mean the most normal life.

“I lost quite a lot of my childhood,” he said. “I was always lonely and had few friends. I want to learn new things now other than tennis. If I miss it, I’ll come back. If not, then that’s it.”

George Sarmiento said he has heard his son talk like this before, and doesn’t put much credence to it.

“He’s a very good kid,” George Sarmiento said. “It bothers me that he’s putting all that time in his religion. He’s just a little tired right now, that’s all.”

Olson said Carlo Sarmiento has often used the threat of quitting as a bargaining ploy with his father.

“Carlo doesn’t have discipline in his life,” Olson said. “His parents have asked him to go back to school, but he’s always gotten his way. He’s always threatened to quit tennis because he knows that is his father’s weakness. His father will back off him for a while when he threatens him with that. Carlo is very manipulative.”

Olson says he might know Carlo Sarmiento better than Carlo’s father does.

“He will tell me things he won’t tell his dad,” said Olson, who said Carlo Sarmiento often spent the night at his house.

It is Olson’s belief that Sarmiento will find it difficult to stay away from tennis for too long.

“I don’t think Carlo will quit,” Olson said. “I think he’ll come back once he realizes tennis is all he’s got.”

Maybe, but this week Sarmiento is off on a camping trip to Santa Barbara trying to get tennis out of his mind. He says he told his father last Monday that he wants to take a break.

“He’s disappointed,” Carlo Sarmiento said. “Like every father, he wants the best for his son.”

George Sarmiento says his son’s break will be short.

“My opinion is he’s going to start practicing after his break,” he said. “He’ll be more hungry.”