Weiss Wields Racket Like It’s a Joystick

Nick Weiss vaguely remembers playing a primitive video game called Pong.

All that appeared on a black screen were two short lines on each side, supposed table-tennis paddles, and a small, ball-like dot that traveled from side to side, back and forth, slowly at first but increasingly faster.

The object was to keep the dot in play by making it strike the lines.

“I had it,” Weiss said. “It was a great game.”

Weiss, of Calabasas, defeated Jeffrey Linneman of Thousand Oaks, 6-2, 6-3, Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Southern California Junior Tennis Championships at Los Caballeros Sports Village.

So nervous were these two in the early stages of their 16-and-under division match, they were afraid to strike the ball with any force. They stood on the baseline and hit looping lob shots.

It was a human portrayal of Pong.

“That’s not the way I like to win matches,” Weiss said. “That’s not the way I play. Nerves are my biggest problem.”

Once Weiss found a rhythm, it was no contest.

Third-seeded Weiss, 15, who recently capped a 56-1 freshman season at Calabasas High, dictated nearly every point against Linneman, an All-Marmonte League player at Thousand Oaks.

As the lobbing subsided, the match became a battle of quickness and instincts, providing moments of brilliance.

Weiss raced to the corner for a furious backhand cross-court winner to win one game.

Linneman fought off three Weiss volleys, digging one out of the concrete for a winner that had Weiss shaking his head.

Two points later, Weiss came out of nowhere to punch a Linneman drop shot down the line, his sneakers screeching as he hit the brakes.

They went back and forth.

Linneman, ranked 35th, won three qualifying matches before routing Ryan Haymond in the first round of this tournament, which determines which players from Southern California advance to the national championships.

But he couldn’t handle the speed and power of Weiss, last year’s 14-and-under champion who has since grown five inches to 6 feet but has not lost his agility.

“I wasn’t playing the ball,” Linneman said. “I was thinking about where he was going to go, and he was neutralizing my shots.”

Said Weiss: “He was just throwing [shots] up. As soon as I saw that, I knew I had him. All I had to do was put the ball away. But I was nervous and I wasn’t hitting the ball particularly well.”

Perhaps Linneman should have kept lobbing. But maybe not. Weiss is also a whiz at video games.