TENNIS / DANA HADDAD : Inching Up Toward the Top Rung

Though not very tall, Lori Stern and Robert Yim have been taking some pretty big steps toward gaining stature in their sport.

Stern, of Ojai, finished second in last week’s Southern California Junior Sectional tournament. Seeded No. 2 coming in, she remains the second-best player in the Southland in the girls’ 10-and-under singles division.

But for the second time this year, Stern came close to defeating top-seeded Angela Haynes of San Clemente, who is ranked fourth in the nation.

“I think she’s a little bit better than me,” Stern said after her 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 defeat to Haynes in the final at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley. “I’m happy. Once I didn’t think I could split sets with her. I didn’t think I could get a set off her.”

This was the second time this year Stern pushed Haynes to three sets, losing 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, in Fullerton in the spring.

Yim, of Glendale, is 3 feet 11 and weighs only 65 pounds. He’s 9. But he has quickly earned the respect of the 10-year-olds.

Yim reached the semifinals of boys’ 10 singles in the sectional before losing, 6-4, 6-3, to top-seeded and eventual champion Doug Stewart of Malibu. To get there, Yim upset No. 4 Aaron Yovan of Irvine, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

Yim is so small he has to keep his left arm bent at all times to avoid scraping his racket on the court. But he advanced through the 64-player draw by attacking his bigger, more-experienced opponents and has assured himself a top-five seeding in the section.

It took Stewart three sets to beat Yim, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, at a junior tournament in Long Beach in the spring. Yim lost to Yovan in Arcadia earlier this year and was down, 3-0, in the first set at Fountain Valley before he won five consecutive games.

“I thought I was going lose and then suddenly I caught up,” Yim said. “I did a lot of topspin. He had a problem with that, so I just kept on doing it.”

Stern, beyond intimidation, routinely spars with men on the challenge court at Ojai Valley Racquet Club.

“I’ve hit with her; she’s going to be a player,” said Karl Pope, club owner. “She’s got an incredible feeling for the game. She can serve and volley. That’s very unusual for a girl.”

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Awesome Ania: Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks went on a rampage in winning the Southern California girls’ 18 singles championship. She didn’t lose a set in five matches and dropped only 13 games.

And she made it look easy, routing Violette Ahn of Los Angeles, 6-3, 6-2, in the final.

Who would have guessed that Bleszynski, 17 and bound for Stanford on a tennis scholarship, was nervous?

“We both started off pretty nervous,” Bleszynski said. But Ahn shook her jitters first, breaking Bleszynski’s first two serves to lead, 3-1, in the first set.

“Oh my God,” Bleszynski blurted after she put a backhand into the net to give Ahn her second break.

Then Bleszynski won 20 of the next 24 points and the final five games of the set. She opened the second set winning 13 of 16 points.

So why the jitters? Bleszynski might have been thinking about the 1993 sectional, in which she was upset in the second round.

“Worst match of my life,” Bleszynski said. “That match I hit two balls over the fence on the fly. No joke.”

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Second-best again: If the sectional tournament had been a wedding, Derek Pope of Ojai would certainly have the “best man” routine down by now. He’s made it to the final three times in different age groups but has yet to win.

Second-seeded Pope, 17, had lost in boys’ 12s and 14s finals, and on Sunday lost to his doubles partner, Jakub Pietrowski, in the 18s final. Top-seeded Pietrowski won handily, 6-3, 6-1.

“I want to win this tournament,” Pope said before the final. “My junior career is almost over. I want to end with some good wins. I’m not playing for rankings now. I’m playing for pride and to work on my mental toughness.”

Pope had a 7-5, 6-3 victory in the semifinals over Harvard-Westlake High graduate Philip Tseng, who will play in the U.S. Olympic Festival in St. Louis beginning Friday.

Both were recovering from injuries. Pope, a right-hander, suffered a hairline fracture in his left wrist in March. Tseng broke his left leg skiing in April.

Tseng was frustrated after the match, because he was physically and mentally off his game. Pope said he had the same experience a few weeks earlier in a team tournament in Sacramento.

“I lost to Misha Palecek, who is No. 3 in Northern California--but I’d never lost to him (before),” Pope said.

“Physically, I thought I was in shape. But mentally, I was not used to a tight match. I wasn’t shape in my thinking and my strategy. I was rusty.”