Dent Rolls to Title With Borrowed Racket

Apparently there is some magic left in the old man’s racket.

After searching for his game, his confidence and the right racket for more than a set, Corona del Mar freshman Taylor Dent found all three when his father, former top 10 professional Phil Dent, handed him one of his own.

“I got the lucky one, I guess,” said Dent, who came back from a one-set deficit to defeat San Marino sophomore Andrew Park, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, and win the Southern Section individual singles title Saturday at SeaCliff Country Club.

Dent is believed to be the first freshman to win a Southern Section boys’ singles title. The Southern Section does not list the year in school of previous winners, but section tennis administrator Bill Clark said he does not remember a freshman winning a title.

Park, who defeated Dent in the final of the Whittier Invitational junior tournament last Sunday, also lost the section individual singles final last year.

Park was on his way to making up for last year’s defeat after winning the first set in 25 minutes. Dent was committing a lot of unforced errors and Park was typically sharp with his ground strokes. Dent became so frustrated with Park’s passing shots after losing the first set that he threw his second racket of the match against the fence and broke a string.

He played with another of his rackets for a game before his father came running with a lighter-weight racket.

“I started serving better with my dad’s racket,” said Dent, who beat Simi Valley Royal senior Nick Varvais, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, in a morning semifinal. “My mentality changed when I started with it.”

Dent, who covers a lot of net at 6 feet 2, overpowered Park with his big forehands and heavy serve the last two sets. He broke Park’s serve to open and close the second set and then broke Park’s first service game of the third set to lead, 2-0.

“I couldn’t return his serve and I wasn’t getting the balls deep enough,” said Park, who was playing with a strained arch and a quarter-sized blister on his foot. “He was running around the backhand and killing me.”

Dent finished off Park with a crisp forehand volley that Park could not reach.

“His reach at the net is unbelievable. He makes you go for the line. He forces you to go for too much.”

Said Dent: “I got a little adrenalin at the end. I didn’t think of the win. I just tried to think about playing good tennis.”

The victory was a sweet send-off for Dent, who leaves for Europe Wednesday for three weeks as a member of the United States Tennis Assn. Training Assistance program. Dent said he was aware of the significance of a freshman winning the section individual title.

“I think this is a pretty big win for me,” he said. “There’s all types of players and ages here, and they’re all good. I wanted to win it but I tried to treat it like another tournament.”

Dent was not as sharp in his morning match against Varvais. He didn’t serve as well and he had a lot more unforced errors. But he won the big points at the net and was more aggressive than Varvais, who will attend UC Irvine on a tennis scholarship next year.

“I know a guy who beat him [6-0, 6-0] two years ago,” Varvais said of Dent. “He’s gotten really big and really good, I guess.”

In the doubles final, La Canada freshman Parker Collins and senior Dave Willwerth defeated Etiwanda’s Phil Ham and Jeff Bernard, 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-3.