Media Savvy Beyond Her Years

For 18-year-old Alexandra Stevenson, the monotonous drive from San Diego County to the South Bay area for years of tennis instruction put miles on the family car, but lessons weren’t always confined to the court.

Her mother Samantha, a veteran reporter, started the media training early, preparing Alexandra for postmatch news conferences, even those years distant.

“Ever since I’ve been playing tournaments since I was nine, I’ve been having mock press conferences with my mom in the car,” Stevenson said. “I’m very well prepared. She asks pretty tough questions. She’ll ask questions out of the blue, and I’ll say, ‘Where did you get that from?’ ”

Needless to say, the 126th-ranked Stevenson did not start spouting cliches Friday after she defeated No. 35 Tara Snyder, 7-5, 6-4, in the first round of the Evert Cup. She lost to top-seeded Martina Hingis, 6-3, 6-4, in the second round Saturday.

After the Snyder victory, the bubbly Stevenson was thrilled to sit at a table and speak into a microphone to chat with three reporters, a refreshing change from the usual one-match-at-a-time rhetoric.

On Snyder’s tendency to talk during a point:

“She said, ‘Come on,’ in the middle of the overhead. I just missed it. It would have been a clutch shot. I learned something new [today]. If someone talks in the middle of the point, you have to go complain to the chair.

“She [Snyder] says some things that are pretty random.”

On losing to Venus Williams, 7-5, 6-3, in the quarterfinals at Oklahoma City:

“I think in the match I was trying to be too perfect, going for the lines. You don’t really have to do it, it’s not like they’re gods--they’re girls.”

On serving well against Williams:

“It was a war of the serves--I actually won that. I had 12 aces and she had nine. I was very upset they didn’t write about that in Oklahoma City.

“The first game, she served an ace, a service winner, an ace and a service winner. The crowd went, ‘Whoa! This kid is gonna get killed.’ So I said, ‘OK, whatever, I’m not going to get killed.’

“So I go out. We switch sides. And I serve an ace down the T, an ace, an ace wide and a service winner. And the crowd stands up and cheers, and they’re like, ‘Wow! This is going to be a real match.’ ”

Last year, Stevenson won a challenger event at Midland, Mich., and pushed Sandrine Testud of France to three sets at La Costa before losing in the first round in August. This is despite not being able to hit the tour full stride, still performing a balancing act with her high school studies at Country Day in La Jolla and the tennis world.

She has not turned pro yet and won’t be playing in the French Open, opting to attend her high school graduation and perform in the school play, “Grease.” Stevenson has a bit part as a cheerleader.

“I always wanted to be class president and to be a cheerleader,” she said. “I never got to do that. So I get to do it in the play.”

FIFTEEN MINUTES

Papers filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland in IMG’s lawsuit against former employee Jeff Schwartz state that a business representative of Hingis advised the company that she was terminating the relationship and that a termination notice was sent to IMG on Feb. 22.

Court documents also said that in November 1998, Schwartz renegotiated the representation agreement between Hingis and IMG, containing a provision that would enable her to terminate it on 30 days’ notice.

“Everything right now is in discussion,” Hingis said Thursday.

Schwartz represented Hingis, who teased him when she read about the lawsuit in the paper.

“It was big in the paper. I said, ‘You made it.’ He called me and said ‘Andy Warhol. Everybody has 15 minutes. And this is my time.’

“I said, ‘It’s probably going to be more than 15 minutes.’ ”