Hamilton Stripped of Eligibility : Tennis: Top junior banned from national event after skipping sectional to play in a pro tournament in Georgia.

Krissy Hamilton of Agoura Hills, one of Southern California’s most promising junior tennis players, has been stripped of her eligibility to compete later this month in the United States Tennis Assn. national championships.

The action came after an investigation by the Southern California Tennis Assn. revealed Hamilton in June competed as an amateur in a mid-level professional tournament in Georgia when she was supposed to be participating in a key national qualifying tournament in Orange County. Hamilton, 15, already has competed in two national championship tournaments in the 18-and-under division.

“The endorsement committee is not endorsing her because she did not play in the junior sectionals,” Jim Hillman, the SCTA director of junior tennis, said this week. “Our records indicate she played in [another] tournament.”

Hamilton is considered the second-best player in the Southern California section behind fellow Agoura Hills resident Erin Boisclair. Hamilton was the top-seeded player in the recent sectional championship tournament because Boisclair was attending a tennis academy in Florida.

But Hamilton didn’t appear at the tournament in Fountain Valley and withdrew.

Hamilton’s coach and stepfather, Craig Heinberg, said she was forced out of competition because of foot surgery. Hillman, who said he asked Heinberg for a doctor’s statement, initially planned to grant a waiver to Hamilton that would allow her to play in the national event in San Jose Aug. 6-12.

But the SCTA launched an investigation after it learned from sources that Hamilton was playing in the $25,000 USTA Women’s Challenger of Peachtree in Peachtree City, Ga.

Draw sheets from that tournament show that Hamilton won three qualifying matches and her first-round match of the main draw before she was eliminated, according to the SCTA. Her final two matches in Georgia overlapped with the first two matches she was scheduled to play in the sectional.

Hillman said he has received a doctor’s statement but that the note did not provide the specific date of a recent surgery. Withdrawing from the sectional to play in another tournament, Hillman said, is grounds for penalty.

“That was not an acceptable excuse to receive a waiver,” Hillman said.

Said Heinberg: “[Hillman] feels we lied to him, but there was no way she could have gone through it, because she had the toe surgery.”

According to Heinberg, Hamilton had surgery not for a toe but for a hangnail, a recurring problem.

Heinberg at first said to a Times reporter that his stepdaughter had surgery June 20. But SCTA records show Hamilton played in Georgia on June 21-22.

Later, Heinberg said Hamilton had surgery on “either Friday or Saturday”--June 23 or 24--after she competed in Georgia.

“Apparently, Jim has it in for [Hamilton],”Heinberg said. “She’d love to go to the nationals and play. She loves to play tennis. They just decided to give her the ax without talking to us.”

Heinberg said he has yet to hear from Ron Berman, chairman of the SCTA sportsmanship committee, and has not been able to present the family’s side of the story.

The action to remove Hamilton from the national tournament came not from the sportsmanship committee but the endorsement committee.

However, Hillman said the endorsement committee had hoped to receive a ruling from the sportsmanship committee before deciding whether or not to allow Hamilton to play in the USTA nationals. Deadline for entry is Friday.

The sportsmanship committee could levy more penalties against Hamilton. In the most-severe case, it could recommend that Hamilton be suspended from junior competition for the rest of the year.