Maes No Obstacle for Bleszynski : Tennis: Stanford freshman reaches women’s Pac-10 singles semifinals at 96th Ojai tournament.

Ania Bleszynski has won five championships in Ojai Valley tennis tournaments.

The resident of Thousand Oaks, who attends Stanford, moved one step closer to a sixth title Friday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Vicky Maes of Arizona at Libbey Park.

But this one could be so much bigger than the others.

Bleszynski, 18, advanced to today’s semifinals of the Pacific 10 Conference championships. With a victory over Keri Phebus of UCLA, Bleszynski would be playing Sunday for the Pac-10 singles title as a freshman.

The thought boggles her mind, because she had doubts about her ability to compete at this level.

“I wasn’t sure before I came to Stanford,” she said. “I didn’t think that I was going to be that great. College tennis is a little bit different. These players have more experience.”

But Bleszynski already has made her mark by winning the Rolex regional championships last November.

She made another mark Friday by upsetting Maes, who is ranked 12th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. Bleszynski is No. 28.

Phebus presents another big obstacle. A 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 winner over Nicole London of USC, Phebus is ranked No. 2 in the nation and seeded first in this 96th Ojai tournament--annual setting for the Pac-10 championships.

As a freshman, Bleszynski says she’s nervous when she takes the court against older players she used to watch here.

“You always look up to the big names, the people who are two and three years ahead of you,” she said. “A lot of them I’ve never played.”

But Bleszynski, who has a 26-9 record, said her confidence has grown late in the season, much as it does in matches.

A 6-foot power hitter, Bleszynski broke Maes’ first serve and built a 3-0 lead while staying on the baseline. In the second set, Bleszynski, who is quicker and better at the net than a year ago, started attacking.

Maes couldn’t get any closer than 4-2 as Bleszynski kept her on the run with hard, deep, angled shots.

In boys’ 14-and-under singles, Nicholas Weiss of Tarzana and Travis Rettenmaier of Camarillo will face each other in today’s semifinals.

Joe Chrisman of Ventura and Zafar Fisher of Ventura reached the semifinals of boys’ 16 singles.

Nick Varvais of Royal High advanced to the semifinals of boys’ interscholastic singles.

Zuzana Stunova of Camarillo advanced to the semifinals of girls’ 16 singles, and Darian Chappell of Camarillo and Jonni Seymour reached the final of girls’ 16 doubles.