Little Evert Goes Long Way for Exon

Natalie Exon denies she looks like Chris Evert, though she has donned pigtails before--and she refuses to admit she watches videotape of Evert in her spare time. But Exon can’t deny her style could be mistaken for the former queen of tennis.

“I think it’s my flat strokes,” said Exon, who will be a senior at Woodbridge High next year. “All the coaches say it’s stupid, but it’s just something that I do.”

Chris Ganz, Exon’s coach, said there are many more similarities Exon probably isn’t aware of.

“She’s kind of got the old style game like Chris Evert,” Ganz said. “The young players don’t remember her much, but all the coaches see the resemblance. She’s got that picture perfect form from the old days. She looks like Evert, acts like her and plays like her.”

Exon undoubtedly wishes she played more like Evert, winner of 157 professional titles and 18 Grand Slam events in her 17-year career. Wednesday at Los Caballeros Sports Village, she played like a 17-year-old desperately trying to get her game to the next level. She defeated Katella’s Kristen Sakamoto, 6-2, 6-4, in the Southern California Junior Sectionals with a racket that she has been using for only two months.

Exon switched to a larger more powerful Wilson Hammer from a smaller looser racket she had used for years.

“I liked my old racket,” said Exon, who plays fourth-seeded Kristina Kraszewski of Torrance today in the second round of the girls’ 18s. “But it was dead. There was no life in it. I was hitting the ball and it wasn’t going anywhere.”

If it were up to Exon, she’d still be stuck in the 1970s with Evert, Billie Jean King and Virginia Wade.

“I would rather play with a wooden racket,” she said. “I wish they’d come back in style.”

Exon also wouldn’t mind if coaches started teaching flat ground strokes again, but she realizes she’s asking for too much.

“I started out wanting to be like [Evert], but the game changed a lot,” she said. “Everybody said you had to hit top spin to be effective, so I’ve started to change.”

Exon started by switching rackets, then she changed her grip--from Continental to almost Western. Ganz said Exon is slowly moving into the 1990s.

“She’s hitting the ball harder than ever,” Ganz said. “She’s hitting hundreds of balls in practice as hard as she can. She knows this is it, so she’s going for it. She wants a scholarship real bad.”

Exon wants a scholarship to UCLA, but realizes UCLA probably doesn’t want her, so she’s lowered her standards.

“I’d like to go somewhere where I can play and get a full scholarship,” she said. “I have to be realistic. They have a lot of good players.”

Not that Exon is a bad player, but she isn’t among the top 30 players nationally. But that’s what the summer is for--improving your ranking and catching the eyes of college coaches.

If nothing else, Exon should be easy to spot. Just look for the Chris Evert forehand and the Wilson Hammer racket.