COURTING CONFIDENCE

The seeds of Philip Sheng’s recent tennis success are rooted in disappointment over his performance a few months ago in the U.S. National Hardcourt Championships at Kalamazoo, Mich.

Sheng, a Thousand Oaks High junior, won the the Southern Section singles title last May and appeared primed for a strong run in the boys’ 18 division of the national event.

But after beating Eric Ward of Thomasville, Ga., 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of singles play, Sheng lost to No. 6-seeded Philip Stolt of Upper Saddle River, N.J., 6-4, 6-3, in the second round.

The fact that he and Nick Weiss of Calabasas High advanced to the round of 16 before being eliminated from doubles competition proved small consolation to Sheng.

“I wasn’t very happy with the way I played,” he said. “I thought I was going to do a lot better.”

He is now.

Sheng has not lost in a USTA junior tournament since then, and entered the 2000 Easter Bowl Junior Tennis Championships as the No. 5-seeded player in the boys’ 18 division. The tournament began Friday and runs through April 22 at the Riviera Resort and Racquet Club in Palm Springs.

“I definitely want to win it,” Sheng said. “It’s going to be tough, but I feel like everything I hit, I’m going to win.”

Sheng is highest seeded among 32 players from the Valley/Ventura County region competing in the Easter Bowl, featuring 640 of the nation’s best junior players.

Sheng leads 139 players from the U.S. Tennis Assn.’s Southern California section, a rating he earned by posting a 21-0 record in USTA junior tournaments since December.

In high school matches, he is 17-1 in sets for Thousand Oaks (11-4, 8-3 in the Marmonte League). Sheng’s only defeat was to Weiss, 6-4, in a nonleague match March 7.

“He’s a legit No. 5,” said John Hilton, Sheng’s private coach. “His confidence is really there. I think he definitely has a chance to win [the Easter Bowl].”

Sheng attributes his winning streak largely to an improved work ethic and the guidance of Hilton, with whom he began training in August.

Since then, success has come swiftly but not easily for Sheng, who finished the 1999 season ranked No. 3 in Southern California and No. 40 nationally in boys’ 18’s. USTA rankings for 2000 have not been established.

“I was coasting last year,” Sheng said. “Now I’m working harder and it’s paying off.”

In spades . . . and aces.

“I’m getting a lot more free points off my serve now,” said Sheng, who began his high school career content to slug it out from the baseline but has worked in the last year to develop a serve-and-volley game.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Sheng, 16, has always had power. But he says his serves are bigger, his volleys more are effective and his backhand is better since he began working to improve specific weaknesses, like his backhand.

Opponents must cringe knowing that Sheng brings an improved backhand to go along with one of the biggest forehands in the region.

“I don’t know of anyone in juniors who’s got a forehand bigger than his,” Hilton said.

Sheng used an assortment of shots to win the Southern California Tennis Assn. Mid-Winter tournament in Santa Barbara in January. He reached the final of a tournament in Whittier and the semifinals of a tournament in Fullerton last month. Those events have not been completed after rain forced postponement of play.

Sheng also won the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona in December. That title was followed by a surprising performance at a Futures professional tournament in San Antonio in February. Sheng’s showing in Texas earned him a coveted Assn. of Tennis Professionals point, moving him into pro rankings for the first time. One ATP point places a player among the top 1,400 in the world.

Sheng made the leap with victories in three qualifying matches--including one against Maximillian Abel of Germany, the No. 5-ranked junior in the world--that gave him a berth in the tournament’s main draw, where he beat Joey Blake of Texas in the first round.

“I’ve just gotten a lot more confident,” Sheng said. “Everybody I play now, I feel like I can hang in there and play with them.”

It is a feeling he much prefers to the one he experienced last year at Kalamazoo.