ORANGE COUNTY TENNIS / DAVE McKIBBEN : Kojian Can Finally Shrug Off Pain

Villa Park High’s Arpi Kojian was playing some of the best tennis of her career in late 1997, winning the Fiesta Bowl girls’ 14 title in Phoenix and reaching the quarterfinals of the Copper Bowl event in Tucson.

But she was also popping six Advils a day to ease the pain in her right shoulder.

“I didn’t want to believe that I had an injury,” Kojian said. “I figured it was a tennis injury--tendinitis or something. It seemed the worse the shoulder got, the better I played. I know that’s sick and twisted, but that’s what was happening.”

But the six Advils became eight and the power in Kojian’s serve was disappearing. She was no longer playing matches, she was surviving them.

“I had a tingling feeling in my hand a lot,” Kojian said. “When I’d wake up, sometimes my hand would be asleep for 20 minutes. When I tried to serve and hit overheads, my shoulder wasn’t so much sore as it was dead and lazy.”

In February 1998, Kojian finally went for help. The third doctor she saw told her she might have thoracic outlet syndrome, a relatively harmless nerve disorder that is treatable. But it wasn’t until three months ago that nerve specialist Aaron G. Filler of UCLA--Kojian’s sixth doctor--confirmed the diagnosis of thoracic outlet syndrome with an MRI exam.

“They told me my shoulder muscle was too big and it was impinging the nerve,” she said. “It was brought on by a genetic defect, not tennis.”

Once the diagnosis was made in early May, Filler injected Kojian with a muscle relaxant, which shrank the shoulder muscle and eased pressure on the nerve. After another shot in June, the pain was nearly gone.

Physically, Kojian is beginning to come around. Mentally, it might take awhilelonger.

“Emotionally, it just completely drains you,” said Kojian, who turned 16 in June and is entering her junior year. “It was frustrating not knowing what was wrong. I have a huge amount of respect for people who come back from injuries.”

Kojian has played in only a few tournaments over the last six months and her ranking in the girls’ 16 division is nonexistent.

This week, Kojian played in the Orange County Junior Doubles Tournament at Ridgeline Country Club in Orange. She and Laguna Beach’s Ashley Maddocks won the girls’ doubles, beating Priscilla DeVera and Cheresse Areggonte of Los Angeles, 6-1, 6-1, in the final. Kojian also won the mixed doubles with partner Hunter Jack of Corona del Mar, defeating the top-seeded team of Joseph and Joanna Kao of Fullerton, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in the final.

“My game never left me,” Kojian said. “But then again, it hasn’t exactly been tested much lately.”

In April, Kojian was invited to play in the prestigious Easter Bowl Tournament in Miami. But she had to decline the invitation into the girls’ 16 draw because of her injury.

“That killed me,” she said. “I was moping around for days. It added salt to thewound.”

Kojian also skipped the Southern California Sectionals, meaning she couldn’t qualify forany of the national tournaments over the summer.

She has decided against playing high school tennis for the second consecutive year. Instead, she will work with Bobby Berger of Top Pro Tennis in Westwood. Berger, who has coached Kojian since January, said his toughest job will be to help her regain her confidence.

“She’s got a lot of physical talent,” Berger said. “She’s 5-10 and she has a big game. If we can just get her to focus on the positive things, we’ll be fine.”

SENIORS TAKE THE COURT

The 73rd Emulex Pacific Southwest Senior Tennis Tournament, the largest senior event in the country, will be held Sept. 11-19 at Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach.

It will feature more than 400 amateur players from such far-flung locales as New Orleans, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and Northern California. The age divisions range from 25 to 85 in men’s and women’s singles and doubles. There are also six divisions of mixed doubles. A record 12 men have entered the 80-and-over division.

On Sept. 18, semifinal matches will be followed by a players’ party, which commemorates the 25th year of the facility.

All finals are scheduled for Sept. 19. The hottest player in the tournament might be Glen Erickson of Palm Springs. Erickson, the defending men’s 35 singles champion, is undefeated this year in 35-and-over competition.