TENNIS / EASTER BOWL JUNIOR TOURNAMENT : Fullerton’s Kim Changes His Pace to Win Match

Fullerton’s Kevin Kim had his opponent, his U.S. Tennis Assn. coaches and his father shaking their heads after his 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory on Friday over Michael Russell in the boys’ 18s semifinals of the Easter Bowl Junior Tennis Tournament at the Riviera Resort and Racquet Club.

Kim, 16, seemed unfazed. Trailing the third-seeded Russell of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., 5-2 in the first set, Kim suddenly changed tactics on the hard-hitting Russell.

Kim began hitting lobs and dinks to Russell. Occasionally, Kim hit a bullet forehand or backhand past the bewildered Russell.

“He’s hitting the ball five miles an hour, I can’t believe I’m not coming off that,” Russell shouted to himself.

Said Kim: “I just played a lot smarter after 5-2. I was just banging too much with him. I tried to change the pace up, put some bloopers in there. I also started coming in a lot more.”

Kim saved two set points in the eighth game. From there, Russell seemed to get more frustrated with each game and Kim gained more confidence. Russell’s frustration peaked with the scored tied, 5-5, and Russell trailing, 30-15. Kim’s return of serve hit the top of his racquet and popped straight up in the air. The ball appeared to bounce just inside the line, but Russell thought it was out and caught it in his hand.

Kim looked at the referee, who immediately ruled the ball was good. Russell said to the referee, “How can you make a call like that at this time?’ ‘

“I couldn’t believe he made that call,” Russell said. “It was an easy call. I would have smashed it but the ball was outside the line.”

Meanwhile, Kim sat back and kept quiet.

“That was really lucky for me” he said. “The ball was going out, but the wind blew it back in. He got really mad at the ref and that’s just all mental.”

Kim won the game, but Russell immediately broke Kim to force a tiebreaker. Kim was the more aggressive player in the tiebreaker, and Russell uncharacteristically double-faulted twice, the second time on set point.

Kim stayed with his strategy in the second set and won easily, 6-1, as Russell continued to complain about line calls and Kim’s unwillingness to put a lot of pace on his ground strokes.

“I didn’t play aggressively and he picked up his game aggressively,” Russell said. “I didn’t play too smart.”

Andrew Kim said he had never seem his son play so intelligently. Nick Saviano, USTA director of men’s tennis, found it hard to believe that Kim had the the conviction to change his strategy.

“Rather than panic, he decided to make adjustments,” Saviano said. “He had the ability and the willingness to adjust. That’s the part that’s amazing. There’s no player that’s going to come out and play good every single time, but he showed the mental toughness and maturity to realize that.”

Kim leads his series with Russell, also 16, 3-2.

“We’re both good competitors,” he said. “It’s really hard to tell the future, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see each other down the road.”

Kim will see San Jose’s Ryan Wolters, the division’s top seed and Kim’s roommate at Palmer Academy in Tampa, in today’s final. Wolters, 18, has signed a letter of intent with Stanford.

Notes

Taylor Dent of Newport Beach won the boys’ 14 consolation final, 6-3, 6-3, over second-seeded Ramez Quamer of Fairfax, Va. Dent finished fifth in the division.