COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Robbins Falls to Sundberg in Tennis Final

Mathias Sundberg, once an aspiring professional tennis player from Sweden, met David Robbins, a Southern California College redshirt freshman from Fullerton, Saturday in the singles final of the Golden State Athletic Conference tournament.

The result wasn’t unexpected. Sundberg, the top-seeded Point Loma Nazarene junior, quickly dispatched fourth-seeded Robbins, 6-3, 6-2, at the Costa Mesa Tennis Club.

Sundberg, 24, once was ranked among the top 10 junior players in Sweden. He played on satellite tours in Europe, Florida and Hawaii and picked up some ATP points, but got tired of the daily grind of pro tennis.

Eventually, he made his way to Texas, where he helped McLennan to a national junior college title in 1993 and then to Point Loma Nazarene, where he is 19-0 this season and won the independent college division of the Ojai tournament.

Robbins, who was 60-0 as a senior at Sunny Hills in 1993, said he tried not to think about Sundberg’s credentials.

“That wasn’t really on my mind,” Robbins said. “I had respect for him but I tried to do the best that I could do.”

Sundberg took a 4-0 lead in the first set, before Robbins started forcing the action. Then in the third game of the second set, Robbins was on the verge of breaking Sundberg’s serve, but Sundberg fought back from love-40 and held after six deuces.

Later Saturday, Robbins and Mattias Johansson, the top-seeded doubles team, beat Jason Berns and Jeff Villano of Westmont, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the doubles final.

SCC won the team title with 15 points and advanced to the national tournament. Point Loma was second with 13.