Dent Glides to Quick Victory in the Wind

The whipping wind swayed the palm trees at the Riviera Resort and Country Club and moved tennis balls eight to 10 feet in every direction. Wednesday was a good day to own a kite or a sailboat but a horrible day to own a tennis racket.

That is, unless your name is Taylor Dent.

Most players spent the day flailing away at the ball and cursing the wind with pained looks on their faces. Dent, a freshman at Corona del Mar High, floated around the court with a smile on his face as he sent winner after winner through the wind and past a frustrated Joel Berman of Seminole, Fla.

Dent defeated Berman, 6-2, 6-1, in less than an hour, and advanced to the quarterfinals of boys’ 16 division of the Easter Bowl junior tennis tournament.

“It was real windy, but he played real well in the wind,” Berman said. “He covered a lot of ground and a lot of net. He had a lot of pace on the ball and the wind didn’t seem to affect him.”

If Berman knew his opponent better, he’d realize that Dent treated the wind like he treats everything else--nonchalantly.

“I just play my game,” Dent said after his victory Tuesday. “I don’t much worry about whether it goes in or out.”

Though he is quickly becoming one of the nation’s top junior players, Dent refuses to get caught up in his own hype.

“I’ll leave the talk about my potential to somebody else,” he said. “If I’m meant to be No. 1, then I will be.”

Dent was ranked first nationally in the boys’ 14 division and he has reached the quarterfinals of his first boys’ 16 tournament. But he still seems have a hard time believing he’s this good. Recently, he was chosen to represent the United States in an international tournament in Jamaica.

“I’m surprised they picked me,” he said.

If all this seems as if it’s happening too fast for Dent, it is.

Only four years ago, Dent was spending most of his time playing video games, watching television and eating junk food. He didn’t play tennis, or any other sport.

“I had the remote control in my hand and I was sitting around like a bump on a log,” Dent said. “My dad was on me about my eating habits, but he didn’t push me to play sports.

“I was in the sixth grade. I was about 5-2 and I weighed something ridiculous. I was a candy freak--eating two Snickers a day. People probably said, ‘Get a look at that blob.’ ”

Slowly, Dent began to break away from the remote and turn his attention to the tennis court. He started watching his father Phil, a former top-10 ranked professional, work with Michael Chang.

“I saw Chang hit the cleanest ball I’d ever seen,” Dent said. “To see him glide around the court, I thought it’d be great if I could do that.”

But almost before he got going, Dent was back in the house with the remote. “I called my neighbor and his line was busy, so I jumped over the fence to talk to him and wound up breaking my heel,” Dent said.

That cost Dent nine months, but it didn’t deter him. He had already realized that he was meant to be a tennis player.

“If I was a horse, I’d be bred to play this sport,” he said. “My dad was a top eight singles player and my mom [Betty Ann Grout] was a top four doubles player. I’d be a pure-bred horse.”

Phil Dent, who has been his son’s coach, said he sees some of himself in Taylor.

“You like to think you’ve taught him well,” Dent said. “He hits the ball a lot bigger than I did at his age. You can teach a kid everything, but he has to have the talent.”

And he definitely has the talent.

Notes

Geoff Abrams of Newport Beach was beaten in the third round of the boys’ 18 division by eighth-seeded Hugo Armando of Bradenton, Fla, 6-4, 7-5. The match lasted 2 1/2 hours. Abrams was serving for the second set, but his serve was broken and he went on to lose the next two games. Abrams’ serve and volley game was slowed by the wind. In the final game, he served three double faults. . . . Kevin Kim of Fullerton advanced to the quarterfinals of the boys’ 18s with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Matt Horsley of Lisle, Ill. “I was really frustrated by the wind, but I just said to myself, ‘Regroup and stop making unforced errors.’ ” Kim will play three-seeded Mike Bryan of Camarillo today in the quarterfinals at 12:30. . . . Dent plays Carter Morris of Washington at 11 a.m. Dent and partner Thomas Lloyd of Anaheim also play today in the boys’ 16 doubles quarterfinals. . . . Dent’s brother, Brett Hansen-Dent, played at UCI and USC and is now on the pro tour.