TENNIS / DANA HADDAD : Malin Interrupts Lessons to School Foes

If this year’s United States Tennis Assn. National Men’s 45 Hardcourt tournament truly crowned the best player in the country, then Gene Malin again has come mocking.

The wayward pro from Woodland Hills has played little competitive tennis for the past few years while commuting daily from private court to private court to teach others.

Still, all he needed this year to defeat defending champion Brian Cheney of Chandler, Ariz., was a few days of practice.

Malin outlasted Cheney, 7-6 (10-8), 6-7 (7-3), 6-4, last Sunday at the Westlake Swim & Tennis Club in Westlake Village.

“I trained for about a week and a half,” Malin said. “Last year, I was teaching four to five hours a day. But this year, I taught a little less.”

Malin, 46, lost in the quarterfinals last year, after capturing the championship in both singles and doubles in 1993--his first year of eligibility in the 45-and-over division.

“I was a little hungrier,” Malin said. “I realized I had to work a little bit if I wanted it. I wanted that title back.”

Malin, after beating Cliff Price of Tulsa, Okla., 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, for the 1993 championship, was routed last year by eventual runner-up Charlie Hoeveler of Ross, Calif., 6-3, 6-1.

That seemed understandable. While Malin taught five days a week, Hoeveler played three days a week. But. . . .

“I hate losing,” Malin said. “[Last year] I was fuming inside.”

Malin said he still lacks mental toughness because he is unaccustomed to playing tournaments. Yet, playing in the national championship final, he overcame a 4-1 deficit to win the first tiebreaker.

In a showdown of players with powerful serve-and-volley styles, it was Cheney who broke down mentally--if only momentarily.

“Cheney made maybe five mistakes,” Malin said. “Fortunately for me, he made two of them in one game.”

In the first game of the decisive third set, Cheney was caught off balance on his approach by a low Malin return and put a volley into the net.

Cheney volleyed into the net again when, serving at love-40, he had to lunge for Malin’s forehand down the line.

Malin won the service break, held his service throughout the set and won the match.

“Cheney was tough; I was impressed,” Malin said. “But they brought in new balls before the last set and I got aggressive and hit some strong returns that might have surprised him.

“But I’m not tournament tough. I could be better.”

Without much practice, Malin still appears to be too good for the competition.

But the competition in this “national championship” might have been oversold.

Of the 75 competitors, 60 are from the West Coast, 46 of them from Southern California.

However, of the top 10 seeded players at the tournament, three were ranked in the top 10 nationally last year. Three others were in the top 20.

In the past two years, Malin has not been ranked in either the United States or Southern California, because he has not played enough tournaments to meet USTA minimum ranking requirements.

Malin had been ranked among the top 100 professionals in the world during an eight-year pro career in which he beat Dick Stockton and John Newcombe, among others.

Malin now is considering a run at the national grass court tournament in Philadelphia, Aug. 28-Sept. 3.

“If I win that, I think I’ll be ranked No. 1 in the country,” he said.

How often does Malin play on grass?

“Hardly ever,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ll just practice serve-and-volleying and that’ll get me through.”

*

Krissy Hamilton, who was disqualified this week from the USTA national championships, could be well on her way to the professional ranks.

Hamilton, 15, of Agoura Hills, is a two-time national competitor in the 18-and-under singles division, but was disqualified after the Southern California Tennis Assn. determined she played as an amateur in a pro tournament in Georgia last month at the same time she was supposed to compete as the No. 1-seeded player in the Southern California sectional in Orange County.

Her stepfather and coach, Craig Heinberg, said Hamilton already has a world ranking, albeit around 750. Missing the junior nationals might not be a significant disappointment, he said.

“Either way, she’ll do fine,” Heinberg said. “I think she’d like to get out and do the pros.”

Hamilton last week lost to Kari Phebus, 6-3, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the pre-qualifying tournament for the Toshiba Classic of Carlsbad.

Phebus of UCLA is the 1995 NCAA singles champion.

*

Here’s an offer a budding tennis player can’t refuse: Free 90-minute lessons are being offered at 12 area sites through Friday for beginning players.

The lessons are for beginning adults, juniors and families as part of a joint effort by the USTA and the Tennis Industry Assn. to stimulate interest in the sport.

“We’re trying to create new players and get former players back into it,” said Chad Kawahara, a USTA and TIA official. “We’re trying to stop cities from changing tennis courts to roller hockey courts, or whatever.”

Kawahara said a study by a private firm, hired by the TIA, reveals tennis now ranks only 22nd among the nation’s most-popular participation sports. The sport had ranked as high as No. 8 in the early 1980s.

“We’re trying to rebuild the game,” Kawahara said. “We need to try to build it back to the top 10.”

Lessons are being offered at the following locations: Cabrillo Racquet Club in Somis, Westlake Tennis & Swim Club, Moranda Park Tennis Complex in Port Hueneme, Oxnard Tennis Club, ATC Thousand Trails in Acton, Burbank Tennis Club, Cal State Northridge, Northridge Tennis Club, Summit South in Valencia, The Glen in Newhall, and the Warner Center Club in Woodland Hills.