YOUTH IS SERVED

A rousing comeback from a 5-2 deficit by Philip Sheng of Thousand Oaks High against Erik Janson of Westlake had spectators climbing fences in an effort to see around the wind screens surrounding the tennis courts at Thousand Oaks High during a regular-season match in April.

Usually, performances like that had Sheng’s opponents climbing the walls.

Janson, who lost that set, 7-6 (7-3), was hardly the only victim of such exploits by Sheng, a sophomore who climbed to the top of the heap among boys’ tennis players in the region with a similar rally for a 0-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over junior Nick Weiss of Calabasas in the Southern Section singles final last month at Seacliffe Tennis Club in Huntington Beach.

Sheng, the first Thousand Oaks player to win the Southern Section title, has been selected the Times’ Valley / Ventura County boys’ tennis player of the year.

“There was so much behind that title,” Sheng said. “I love my school, and I really won it for the team, kind of. I played the singles final the day after we had lost on games in the semis of the team competition, and I didn’t want to see the season end on that note.”

Sheng hit the low point in the first set against Weiss, who won three of the first five games at love and earned 27 of the first 36 points.

After the top-seeded Sheng won the second set, he and second-seeded Weiss waged a war in the third set.

With Weiss leading, 3-2, they tied at deuce 10 times before Sheng won the sixth game with a forehand service return that turned out to be the high point, and the turning point, of the battle.

Sheng won the next three games and the match.

“I knew I had the ability and the game to win it,” Sheng said. “I really had to step it up and play well to come back against Weiss. With Nick, our games are so similar that whenever we play each other, it’s just a matter of who plays better that day. I played great that day, except that first set, and I know I served the best I’ve ever served in my life.”

A booming serve that Sheng recently had clocked at 122 mph is one of the greatest improvements in the 6-foot-2, 175-pound sophomore’s game over the last year or so.

“You need a serve to play men’s tennis,” Sheng said. “But it’s hitting it 122 mph over and over and over to the right place that’s going to win matches. I’ve been working on accuracy, placement, judgment, that kind of thing, and I’m way better this year.”

The improved serve has added variety to Sheng’s game, allowing him to come to the net and mix up his shots more than last season, when he was content--and plenty effective--simply slugging it out with opponents from the baseline. He reached the quarterfinals of the 1998 Southern Section tournament, the only freshman to do so, and was one of only two players from the region to make it that far.

This season, he was 52-2 in sets, losing in nonleague matches to Paul Warkentin of San Marcos and Quinn Borchard of Rio Mesa as Thousand Oaks went 19-4, finished second in the Marmonte League and advanced to the semifinals of the Southern Section Division II team competition.

The Lancers upset Loyola and then lost in the semifinals to Irvine University, 82-79 on games after they tied 9-9 in sets.

Sheng advanced to the semifinals of the CIF Division singles of the 99th annual Ojai tournament, and was part of a six-player U.S. team that won the World Youth Cup in Costa Rica.

“He is a player who can always find a way to win,” Coach Ron Hedin of Thousand Oaks said. “He knows how to finish a match.

“What makes a champion, what really makes the difference, is that they don’t fall apart. They can maintain a high level of play or else turn things around in a match, and Phil has that ability.”

It served Sheng well this season.