USC’s Moore a Sore Winner

Sprawled out on a trainer’s table getting his body put back together, USC’s Ryan Moore hardly looked like someone who had just stunned the defending NCAA singles champion and current No. 1-ranked college player at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament.

But his stiff back, aching hip and sore ankle didn’t feel quite as bad after the biggest victory of his college career, a perfectly played 7-6 (5), 6-0 victory over top-seeded Alex Kim of Stanford on Friday morning in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 men’s draw at Libbey Park.

It probably shouldn’t have a been a huge surprise that Moore had his biggest college win at Ojai, considering he had some of his biggest junior wins here. He won Ojai titles in the boys’ 14s in 1993 and the boys’ interscholastic division in 1998 while playing for Servite High.

After a disastrous preseason and an average first half of the regular season, Moore has come on strong lately, defeating No. 25 K.J. Hippensteel of Stanford and No. 83 Belazs Veress of California in straight sets last weekend. In the first two days of Ojai, he has beaten Whi Kim of Washington, No. 67 Nic Dubey of Arizona and now Alex Kim.

Those wins should qualify the 77th-ranked Moore for the NCAA singles championships in Athens, Ga., next month. Moore and partner Nick Rainey lost in the doubles final last year, but Moore has never qualified in singles.

“I didn’t want to put pressure on myself, but I knew I needed a few good wins to get me into the NCAAs,” said Moore, who withdrew from doubles because of an injury to Rainey. “But my tournament’s not over. I want some icing for my cake.”

First, he will have to get by his 9:30 a.m. semifinal today against UCLA’s Jean Noel-Grinda, who beat Moore, 6-2, 6-0, six weeks ago. USC Coach Dick Leach said Moore is not the same player who lost to Grinda and dropped four of his first six Pac-10 dual matches.

“He’s been over-hitting all season and hitting too flat,” Leach said. “We’ve been trying to get him to put more spin on the ball and keep it in play, so he could use those legs.”

Even though those legs are not the same length--the left is about an inch longer than his right--they carried Moore to victory on a cold and foggy morning in Ojai. After failing to convert break points at 5-4 and 6-5 in the first set, Moore played a near-flawless tiebreaker. He ran down Kim’s penetrating forehands and well-placed volleys, then came up with huge first serves and stinging ground strokes to keep Kim off-balance.

Moore led the tiebreaker, 4-1, and he was up 6-5 when Kim netted an easy volley with Moore off the court. From there, Kim seemed to fall apart and Moore got even stronger.

Notes

Top-seeded UC Irvine lost just one singles match to defeat UC Santa Barbara, 4-2, and advance to the final of the Big West men’s championships. Today at 9 at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club, Irvine will face Pacific, which beat two-time defending champion Boise State, 4-1. UC Irvine earned singles wins from No. 1 Oliver Schweizer (6-1, 6-7, 6-2), No. 2 David Matthew (6-3, 6-0), No. 5 Greg Biorkman (7-5, 6-2) and No. 6 Renouk Wijemanne (6-2, 6-1). . . . In boys’ interscholastic singles, Patrick Buchanan of Servite, Sergiu Modoc of El Dorado, and Aaron Yovan of University advanced to the semifinals. Yovan beat Cameron Ball of Corona del Mar, 6-4, 6-1, in the round of 16. . . . In the boys’ interscholastic doubles, top-seeded Brian Morton and Garret Snyder of Corona del Mar advanced to the semifinals . . . In the boys’ 16s, Jeffrey Das of Troy will play top-seeded Doug Stewart of Malibu, who defeated Servite freshman Jonathan Sanchez in the quarterfinals, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 . . . In the boys’ 14s, Lee Singer of Laguna Niguel reached semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Stefan Hardy of Santa Maria. . . . In the girls’ 18s, three of the four semifinalists are county players. Top-seeded Kim Nguyen of Saddleback beat Kristina Boss of Riverside, 7-5, 6-0 in the morning and Veronica Fermin of Troy, 6-0, 6-0, in the quarterfinals. Nguyen will play Monica Wiesener of Woodland Hills. Tracy Lin of Canyon and Anne Yelsey of Corona del Mar will meet in the other semifinal. . . . In the girls’ 18 doubles, Taylynn Snyder of Coto de Caza and Serena Fermin of Troy High reached the finals against Colby Comstock and Nicole LaBrucherie of Palos Verdes Peninsula. . . . In the girls’ 16s, Elizabeth Exon reached the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Kady Pooler of Dana Hills.