Phebus Adjusts Attitude, Dismantles Foes : Tennis: Since losing opener in Pac-10 championships, UCLA player has taken her game to a new level.

Keri Phebus wasn’t difficult to locate Wednesday at the Rancho San Clemente Tennis and Fitness Club. She was at least half a foot taller than most competitors at the Toshiba Tennis Classic Opportunity Tournament, a pre-qualifier for the pro tournament at La Costa during the first week of August.

Since entering UCLA almost two years ago, Phebus has grown from 5 feet 11 1/2 to 6 feet 1. She is undoubtedly the Pam Shriver of women’s college tennis. But if the last two months are any indication, Phebus’ growing pains appear to be over.

The unseeded Phebus pulled off upset after upset in reaching the NCAA final in May, and Thursday made Laura Richards, a three-time All-American at the University of San Diego, look like a club player in trouncing her, 6-1, 6-0, in less than a hour.

“She’s good, but I’m playing well,” said Phebus, who graduated from Corona del Mar High in 1992. “I wouldn’t say it was easy, but I had to play well.”

Phebus blew away Richards’ spins, slices and moonballs with an aggressive net game that left her opponent helpless.

“I was working on coming in all along, but I’d be so awkward up there,” she said. “I’d have no balance, no center of gravity. Now, I feel comfortable coming in, that’s my game style now.”

The more Phebus talked about the growth in her game, the bigger her smile seemed to get.

“It’s taken me so long,” she said. “Finally, I can move without feeling uncoordinated. It’s all coming together. I’ve had to be patient. I’ve had my ups and downs, but it’s all coming together.”

And, Phebus says, the best is yet to come.

“Wins like this give me a lot of confidence because I know I still have so far to go,” she said. “Some people, they reach their peak now and I’m just beginning to realize my peak. My game’s about 25% of where it could be and that gives me a lot of incentive.”

But just three months ago, Phebus said her incentive was all but gone. She was a first-round loser and the Pac-10 championships in Ojai and she figured tennis might not be the best thing for her.

“I thought, ‘Geez, what is this going to take?’ ” she said.

” . . . Sometimes you have to go through the valleys before you hit your peaks. I was like Death Valley. I was like below Death Valley, ready to pack it up and pack it in.”

But within a month, Phebus was proving to herself and the NCAA tournament seeding committee that she still could play. Phebus, who finished her sophomore season at UCLA 34-4 in singles and ranked No. 7 nationally, said she has been proving people wrong throughout her tennis career.

“I’ve had to deal with a lot of doubts all through my junior career,” she said. “I was ranked No. 1 in the country every single age division, yet I never was acknowledged for the national team or anything like that. Then I get into college and it’s the same thing. I was ranked No. 10 (among NCAA women) going in. They seed 16 players, but I didn’t get seeded. And of course, they put me against a seed in the first round. It’s been good for my character. It’s caused me to find my hope in other things.”

Along her journey, Phebus has discovered something else about herself.

“I never thought school was important, now it’s one of my top priorities,” said Phebus, who is majoring in sociology. “Not only is tennis becoming fun, but school is too.”

Therefore, Phebus said there is no chance of her leaving school early to join the pro tour.

“I definitely want to finish it,’ she said. “These past two years have been the best years of my life, so I’ve got to finish it.”

Phebus said her parents have always told her to finish what she started.

“In the back of my parents’ heads, they always knew I was going the slower route, one step at a time,” she said. “Be top in the juniors, be top in college, then be top in the pros. Most people aren’t even top in the juniors before going pro.

“They realized that I needed a lot of growing up. When I wanted to go play pro tournaments, they would just tell me to stay in school. That’s been a good thing. I didn’t seem good then, but it is now.”

So Phebus will spend the rest of the summer and the next two years, preparing her mind and body for the professional tour. She leaves Monday for an exhibition tournament in New Jersey. She is also hoping to play in the Manhattan Beach tournament, the U.S. Open and the Toshiba Classic.

Three more victories at Rancho San Clemente will earn Phebus a spot in the 32-player Toshiba qualifying tournament and her first points on the World Tennis Assn. computer.

“I’m hoping to play a lot of pro events while I’m college to get my ranking up,” she said. “I really don’t want to do that satellite grind thing. It’s just not appealing. I’d like to be ranked in the top 100 by the time I graduate from college.”

Notes

Keri Phebus will play Susan Starrett of Los Angeles in today’s quarterfinals. Other quarterfinals will include Rita Marie Pichardo of Beverly Hills vs. Susan Hawke of San Diego or Katrin Kilsch of Palm Desert, Ella Perkin of Poway vs. Lisa Alipaz of Anaheim Hills and Newport Beach’s Cecelia Ampuero vs. Newport Beach’s Danielle Scott. The tournament’s top-seeded player, Laxmi Poruri of Stanford, withdrew because of an injury.