Serena, bizarre incidents highlight 2011 Slammy awards

   It has been an eventful year featuring doubles excellence, a surreal experience, gratifying comebacks, stirring matches, bizarre incidents and even a wacky hairstyle.
   Presenting the first annual Slammys, highlighting 2011 in Northern California tennis:
   He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother Award (Male Players of the Year) -- Former Stanford All-Americans Bob and Mike Bryan continued to build a case as the greatest men's doubles team ever.
   The 33-year-old identical twin sons of Sacramento Capitals coach Wayne Bryan won the Australian Open and Wimbledon to give them 11 Grand Slam titles, tying them with International Tennis Hall of Famers Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde for the Open Era record.
   The Bryans won eight titles overall to boost their record total to 75. They also broke John McEnroe's record of 270 weeks at No. 1 and ended the year on top for a record seventh time.
   Yogi Berra "It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again" Award -- While we're on the subject of twins, Jacqueline Cako faced the Faceys back to back in singles qualifying at the Redding Challenger.
   Cako (pronounced KAY-ko), a sophomore at Arizona State seeded first in qualifying, beat the 18-year-old fraternal twins from the Sacramento suburb of Cameron Park by almost identical scores to advance to the main draw. Alexandra lost 6-2, 6-0 in the first round, and Kat fell 6-2, 6-2 the next day in the second round.
   "It was pretty funny," the 5-foot-10 Cako cackled. "It's never happened to me. I played on the same court, I warmed up with the same person, and I was following the same person as the day before. It was like the day before all over again."
   Still Not Too Shabby Award (Female Player of the Year) -- After winning the Wimbledon and the U.S. Open women's doubles titles in 2010, Vania King of the Capitals and Yaroslava Shvedova came up empty in Grand Slam tournaments this year.
   Not that they didn't come close, falling to fourth-seeded Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the final at Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Shvedova, a Moscow native who plays for Kazakhstan, served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and at 5-4 in the second-set tiebreaker.
  King, a 22-year-old Long Beach product, and Shvedova did win two titles (Cincinnati and Moscow) and reached the semifinals of the French Open. The 5-foot-5 King dropped two spots to sixth in the year-end world doubles rankings and improved 10 places to 76th in singles, reaching the third round of the French Open and U.S. Open and recording her first victory over a top-10 player (No. 10 Marion Bartoli in the second round at Seoul).
   King, by the way, recently launched a new Web site at www.vania-king.com. 
   Tim Tebow Award (Comeback Players of the Year) -- Serena Williams won the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in only the third tournament of her comeback after an 11-month layoff caused by health problems. It was her first crown in the tournament, first outside of Grand Slam or season-ending tournaments in more than three years and first on the U.S. summer circuit since 2000.
   Shortly after winning Wimbledon last year for her 13th Grand Slam singles title, Williams stepped on broken glass at a restaurant and had surgery twice. Then she suffered life-threatening blood clots.
   Jimmy Wang, a former top-100 singles player from Taiwan who trains with Dmitry Tursunov in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, soared from No. 797 to No. 274 in the year-end rankings after missing three years because of two operations on his right (playing) wrist. When asked how he hurt his wrist, the 26-year-old Wang mused, "I wish I knew."
   Honorable mention: Tursunov. The longtime Sacramento-area resident from Moscow continued his comeback from two operations on his left ankle and one on his left foot. He won his first singles title in two years at Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, and jumped from No. 197 to No. 40 in the year-end rankings.
   Tursunov, who turns 30 next December, will try to stay healthy and surpass his 2006 career high of No. 20.
   Stephen King Award (Most Suspenseful Match) -- It seemed nothing could top Daniel Nguyen's 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 victory over Sanam Singh in the deciding match to give USC a 4-3 victory over Virginia at Stanford for the Trojans' third consecutive NCAA Division I men's team title.
   But the battle between sophomores Lauren Embree of Florida and Mallory Burdette of Stanford later that day did. With the teams tied 3-3 in the NCAA women's final and Burdette leading 4-0 in the third set, it appeared certain that the Cardinal would win the title and earn its 185th consecutive home victory spanning 12 years. But Embree rallied to win 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (6), prevailing on her fifth match point.
   "I don't know what it looked like on TV or in the stands, but that took about 10 years off my life," Florida coach Roland Thornqvist said.
   Jeff Tarango "I'm Outta Here" Award --Senior Michael Shabaz of Virginia walked off the court in disgust during his NCAA men's singles semifinal at Stanford. Shabaz, ranked fifth nationally and a two-time NCAA doubles champion, trailed top-ranked Steve Johnson of USC 6-7 (4), 2-4 when he quit in protest of the officiating.
   "I'm in shock," Virginia coach Brian Boland confessed afterward. "I consider this the lowest point of my 15 years as a collegiate head coach. I've known Michael four years, and he's never quit on a match or walked off the court."
   Rumor has it that Shabaz recently quit a Monopoly game when his opponent landed on Boardwalk..
   John McEnroe "You Cannot Be Serious" Award -- Speaking of bizarre incidents, Daniel Kosakowski netted a volley on match point for him in the semifinals of the Sacramento Futures but won the point.    
    How is that possible? Chair umpire Brad Taylor ruled that opponent Antoine Benneteau had distracted Kosakowski during their exchange at the net by saying "No" when Benneteau thought Kosakowski had double-hit the ball. Therefore, Taylor awarded Kosakowski the point. Benneteau argued at the time but later said it was the right call.
   (I'd Rather Not) Meet the Press Award -- OK, one more wild occurrence.
   Forgive Lauren Davis if she's a little nervous around television cameras. It's not that the promising 18-year-old American is shy. Rather, in one of the strangest accidents in sports history, she suffered a concussion while filming a commercial at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C., in April. The wind knocked over the camera, which fell on the 5-foot-2, 120-pound Davis' head. 
   "I blacked out for five or 10 seconds," the sixth-seeded Davis said after demolishing Katie Ruckert 6-0, 6-0 in 62 minutes in the first round of the Redding Challenger in September. "I didn't think it was too severe, but the pain was excruciating the next day. I got really nervous then. I felt like my head was g oing to explode. I had headaches for two months straight, but it was never that severe again."
   Don Henley/Glenn Frey "New Kid in Town" Award (Newcomer of the Year) -- Unseeded Milos Raonic, then 20, stunned top seed and defending champion Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) to win the SAP Open in San Jose. Raonic, 6-5, became the first player born in the 1990s to win an ATP World Tour singles title and first Canadian to capture an ATP title since Greg Rusedski in Seoul in 1995.
   Runner-up: Jack Sock. Three weeks after his stunning U.S. Open mixed doubles title with fellow American Melanie Oudin, the 19-year-old Sock reached the singles quarterfinals and doubles final of the $100,000 Sacramento Challenger.
   "He's a great player," veteran James Blake, a former top-five player, said after eliminating Sock in singles. "He has a lot of talent. He would have beaten the pants off me at 19. He has a lot to learn, for sure, but he's already done a lot at 19. I can see him being a completely different player next year at this time."
   Kim Clijsters Nice Guy Award --Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native trying to return to the top 20 after undergoing surgery on his right (playing) elbow in June, hit with ballboys and ballgirls after his matches in the Sacramento and Tiburon Challengers.
   After Blake was thanked for interviews during the Sacramento tournament, he invariably said, "My pleasure." The last time I heard an athlete say that was ... never.
   To learn more about Blake, a class act in the mold of Arthur Ashe, read his 2007 autobiography, "Breaking Back." You won't regret it.
  Odd Couple Award -- Croatia's Ivo Karlovic, the tallest player in the Sacramento Challenger at 6-10, beat Dominican Victor Estrella, the shortest at 5-8, in the second round 6-3, 6-2. Karlovic, who missed the last six months of 2010 after undergoing Achilles' tendon-related surgery, went on to win the title and repeat the following week in the Tiburon Challenger.
   Elle Woods Award -- With power and quickness, 6-2 Blake Strode appears to have a bright future in professional tennis. But don't feel too bad for him if he doesn't make it. The 24-year-old St. Louis product has deferred his acceptance to Harvard Law School, which Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) attended in the hilarious movie "Legally Blonde."    
   Emergency Medical Technician Award -- Former Capitals owner Ramey Osborne came to the rescue when the team appeared to be on its death bed. He repurchased World TeamTennis' longest-tenured franchise (26 years), assuring it would stay in Sacramento, after owner Bob Cook declared bankruptcy.
   Brian Wilson Incognito Award -- Doubles specialist John Paul Fruttero, a former All-American at Cal, showed up at the Sacramento Challenger in October with blue and gold spiked hair.
   "It started in April on my 30th birthday," he explained. "In the tennis world, that's pretty old. It's safe to say I was having a mid-life crisis. I lost in the first round four times in a row. I told the stylist in Tampa (Fla.) to do something crazy, change things up. ... It was light brown in Tampa, pretty tame. I asked for gray in China and got platinum blond."
   Fruttero switched to blue and gold in honor of his alma mater the week before the Sacramento tournament while he was at home in San Jose.
  "I'm very loyal to my school, and there are a lot of Cal supporters here," he said. "You can't wear a (school) logo in your matches, so why not do something different?"
   It worked. Fruttero skyrocketed from No. 359 in the world to a career-high No. 117 in 2011.
   All in all, it has been a hair-raising year.            

Roseville's Riffice gains semis in Winter Nationals

   Sam Riffice of Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento, on Friday reached the boys 12 singles and doubles semifinals of the USTA Winter Nationals in Tucson, Ariz.
   Riffice, seeded third in singles, defeated seventh-seeded Alexander Rushin of Rancho Santa Fe 6-2, 6-4. Riffice and Noah Schachter of Steilacoom, Wash., seeded first in doubles, beat eighth-seeded Roscoe Bellamy of Pacific Palisades and Keenan Mayo of Roseville 3-6, 6-3, 10-3.
   Seventh-seeded Paul Barretto of Bel Tiburon and Conrad Russell of Los Altos Hills advanced to the doubles semis in the other half of the draw.
   No. 22 seed Catherine Bellis, a resident of Atherton playing up in the girls 14s, lost to 11th-seeded Raquel Pedraza of Claremont 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
   All Northern Californians have been eliminated in boys and girls 18 and 16 singles and doubles in Scotttsdale, Ariz. 

Advantage, Serbia: Tiny nation becomes power

   While training indoors during the winter at the Partizan Tennis Club in Belgrade, Serbia, in the early 1990s, Dusan Vemic couldn't help but notice a precocious 6-year-old on the next court.
   Vemic was 17 at the time. The boy's name was Novak Djokovic.
   "He was always an interesting little kid," recalled Vemic, who has played for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis for the past two seasons. "He was like a little professor. You could have a serious conversation with a 6-year-old. It doesn't happen that often.
   "He was talking about things he needed to work on and how to warm up. He was like a professional tennis player. He was not playing tennis; he was working tennis."
   Eight years later, Vemic played on the Davis Cup team when Djokovic was brought in as a hitting partner.
   "You could see he was a special talent," Vemic said. "He was a sponge as well. He would take all the advice we would give him. That's another quality he has. He will continue to get better and be a great champion when he looks back."
   Djokovic recently completed one of the greatest years in tennis history. He won three Grand Slam singles titles and 10 overall, rose to No. 1 in the world and went 70-6 (with two of the losses resulting from retirements), including 6-0 against Rafael Nadal (all in finals) and 4-1 against Roger Federer.
   And Djokovic is just the beginning for Serbia. Against all odds, the tiny country bombed by NATO forces in 1999 has produced four No. 1 players in the world in the past three years. Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic (both in women's singles) and Nenad Zimonjic (men's doubles) all climbed to the top in 2008.
   In the men's game, Serbia also has No. 9 Janko Tipsarevic and No. 22 Viktor Troicki. With Djokovic leading the way, the nation won its first Davis Cup title last year.
   How has Serbia, smaller in area than South Carolina and somewhat larger in population than Dallas-Fort Worth, become a tennis power?
   "It's definitely the spirit," said Serbia's Ilija Bozoljac, the runner-up at Challengers in Aptos in July and Tiburon in 2009. "Kids are really competitive and hungry. That's the key. If you lose in Serbia a couple of times, you feel ashamed.
   "If you're 200 in the world, it means nothing in Serbia," continued Bozoljac, a flashy player who uses two hands on both sides. "In the States, everyone thinks you're really good, which you are. But (the Serbian) mentality makes you want to go for more. In the States, it's the opposite. You can get a sponsor and support, but players are getting spoiled."
   The poor economy in Serbia has a lot to do with the motivation of juniors and their parents. According to the U.S. Department of State, the official unemployment rate last April was 22.2 percent.
   "Serbian kids are fighting for their life," said Vemic, a crowd pleaser with great athleticism who reached the doubles semifinals at the French Open in 2008 and Australian Open in 2010. "U.S. kids don't have that as the last option. They have education, a good lifestyle and many more opportunities. Serbian kids are a little more hungry. We've been struggling (economically) the last 20 years, that's for sure."
   Added Djokovic in the New York Times last September: "There is something in the mentality that obviously helps us, because we have all experienced the war, we have all experienced tough times, to have the right conditions to become a professional player."
   Jankovic agreed.
   "When you get used to (those) conditions and not-so-good facilities like some other countries have, I think it makes you stronger," she told espnW.com in September. "You feel good especially when you come to playing on those perfect courts like you have in the States. ... You feel like you're in heaven and you're ready for everything.
   "When it comes to our cases, we earned it the hard way. We came from a small country without really a tradition in tennis. We came a long way. It shows it doesn't matter where you come from, what kind of facilities you have. If you have the will and the desire and the motivation, the hunger to succeed, you can do it, so I think we showed that."
   Vemic said Serbia's rise to power in tennis has been "like a wave." On the men's side, he and Zimonjic, both 35, came first. Then came Tipsarevic, 27, Troicki, 25, and Djokovic, 24. On the women's side, Monica Seles, 38, paved the way for Jankovic, 26, and Ivanovic, 24.
   "There were a couple of good guys before Novak, Ana and Jelena became the best in the world," Vemic said. "Tipsarevic pulled everyone in the top 100. Novak was right behind at 16, 17 years old. Jelena was the No. 1 junior, and Ana also was good in the juniors. The whole timing of one of the veterans breaking through to the top level gave the others confidence. We all train together from time to time."
   Serbia's success, Vemic added, "makes me feel good. I enjoy every good result. I can only hope and believe that I contributed a little bit."
   Blake withdraws -- James Blake, the runner-up in the Sacramento Challenger in October, reportedly has withdrawn from the Brisbane International, which begins Sunday, and the Australian Open, Jan. 15-29, for personal reasons.
   Blake, 32, hopes to begin his year at the SAP Open in San Jose, where he reached the singles semifinals in 2009 and 2003 and won the doubles title in 2004 with Mardy Fish. Next year's tournament is set for Feb. 13-19.
   National junior tournament -- No. 22 seed Catherine Bellis of Atherton defeated Jaclyn Switkes of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 to reach the girls 14 quarterfinals at the USTA Winter National Championships in Tucson, Ariz.
   Also in the girls 14s, No. 31 Jenna Friedel of Mill Valley lost to top-seeded Emma Higuchi of Los Angeles 6-2, 6-1.
   In boys 12 singles, third-seeded Sam Riffice of Roseville beat No. 22 Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the quarters. No. 21 Paul Barretto of Bel Tiburon fell to No. 1 Noah Makarome of Wesley Chapel, Fla., 6-3, 6-3.
   Results of the boys and girls 18s and 16s in Scottsdale, Ariz., were not available.

Year-end rankings released; junior Winter Nationals

   The year-end men's and women's world rankings feature three players with Northern California connections in the top 10 in doubles and three in the top 100 in singles.
   Former Stanford All-Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, the twin sons of Sacramento Capitals coach Wayne Bryan, ended the year No. 1 in doubles for the third straight year and record seventh overall. They also broke John McEnroe's record of 270 weeks at No. 1.
   Vania King of the Capitals slipped from fourth to sixth in women's doubles. She and Yaroslava Shvedova failed to win a Grand Slam title, falling 7-6 in the third set of the U.S. Open final to Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, after winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year.
   Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian living in the Sacramento area, jumped from No. 157 to No. 40 in singles. The 29-year-old Moscow native had plunged from a career-high No. 20 in 2006 to No. 526 last year after undergoing three operations on his left ankle or foot between April 2009 and February 2010.
   Sam Querrey knows all about physical problems, too. The San Francisco native, 6-foot-6, fell through a glass table and gashed his right arm in 2009 and underwent operations for bone spurs in his elbow and an umbilical infection last summer. He plummeted from No. 18, one spot below his career high in January, to No. 93 this year.  
   King, who's listed at 5-5, improved from No. 86 in singles to No. 76.
   Following are the 2011 year-end world rankings of professional players with Northern California ties (change from last year in parentheses):

Great year

   Bob Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   Mike Bryan, 1998 NCAA doubles champion from Stanford -- No. 1 in doubles (no change), unranked in singles.
   John Paul Fruttero, Cal All-American in 2001 and 2002 -- Career-high No. 117 in doubles (+242), unranked in singles.

Good year

   Vania King, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 6 in doubles (-2), No. 76 in singles (+10).
   Dmitry Tursunov, Folsom resident -- No. 40 in singles (+157), No. 237 in doubles (-116).
   Scott Lipsky, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 29 in doubles (+30), unranked in singles.
   Raquel Kops-Jones, 2003 NCAA doubles champion from Cal -- No. 37 in doubles (+26), No. 721 in singles (-45).
   Jimmy Wang, Folsom resident -- No. 274 in singles (+523), No. 522 in doubles (unranked at end of 2010).

   Yasmin Schnack, Elk Grove resident, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2011) -- No. 181 in doubles (approximately No. 500 at end of 2010), No. 412 in singles (+180).
   Maria Sanchez, Modesto resident -- No. 268 in doubles (in college at end of 2010), No. 696 in singles (in college at end of 2010).
   Kiryl Harbatsiuk, three-time Big Sky Conference MVP (2009-11) at Sacramento State -- No. 763 in singles (+134), No. 1,245 in doubles (-626).

 Fair year

    David Martin, 2002 NCAA doubles runner-up from Stanford -- No. 105 in doubles (-3), No. 755 in singles (+138).

Bad year

   Sam Querrey, San Francisco native -- No. 93 in singles (-75), No. 38 in doubles (-8).
   Mark Knowles, Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis (2001-07, 2009-11) -- No. 58 in doubles (-30), unranked in singles.
   Conor Niland, 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and two-time All-American at Cal -- No. 286 in singles (-157), unranked in doubles (No. 877 at end of 2010).
   Dusan Vemic, Capitals (2010-11) -- No. 500 in doubles (-436), No. 1,510 in singles (no ranking at end of 2010).
   National junior tournament -- Three Northern Californians reached the third round of boys 18 singles Wednesday at the USTA Winter National Championships in Scottsdale, Ariz. Advancing were 11th-seeded Andrew Ball of Palo Alto, 17th-seeded Richard Pham of Saratoga and unseeded Michael Guzman of Napa.
   Also reaching the third round were:
   --Collin Altamirano (17) of Yuba City and Logan Staggs of Tracy in boys 16 singles.
   --Ayla Aksu of San Francisco and Paige Cline of Kentfield in girls 16 singles.
   Moving into the round of 16 in Tucson, Ariz., were:
   --Catherine Bellis (22) of Atherton and Jenna Friedel (31) of Mill Valley in girls 14 singles. 
   --Sam Riffice (3) of Roseville, Paul Barretto (21) of Bel Tiburon and Jenson Brooksby (22) of Sacramento in boys 12 singles.

With clay court, California dreamin' becomes reality

Players warm up on the Har-Tru (green clay) court at Ben Combs' house in Orangevale.

   The players met for a coveted clay-court trophy, a tidy sum of money and bragging rights.
   But the hotly contested final -- which featured a paid chair umpire, ballgirls, sponsor banners, VIP seating and food for spectators -- did not take place in a packed stadium of raucous fans in Europe or South America. 
   It was held in front of 30 fellow competitors, family members and friends in the back yard of Ben Combs' home in bucolic Orangevale, a suburb of Sacramento.
  Jordan Boyls and Mark Tappan defeated Chris Evers and Dave Hagiwara 6-4, 6-4 last month to win the  Sacramento Clay Court League. Afterward, Boyls and Tappan received an envelope containing $1,200 in cash. Evers and Hagiwara split $500, and third-place finishers Mike Smith and Bryan Paveglio shared $300.  

Posing after the final of the Sacramento Clay Court League in November are, left to right, Har-Tru executive Tim Beyer,  runners-up Chris Evers and Dave Hagiwara, Commissioner Ben Combs and champions Jordan Boyls and Mark Tappan.

   "I love playing on clay," said the 53-year-old Tappan, who won the NCAA Division III singles title in 1979 and led Redlands to the team championship. "It's easy on the body, and the pace is a little slower."   
   Clay courts are the norm in Europe and Latin America and common in the eastern and southern United States. But they're about as rare as hockey rinks in the western U.S. Tim Beyer, the new markets manager for Har-Tru  (American green clay), said less than 1 percent of all courts in California are clay versus more than 50 percent in Florida.
   The ratio is reflected on the ATP World Tour and the WTA tour, the major leagues of men's and women's tennis, respectively. Of the 124 tournaments combined this year, 41 were on clay. Thirty-one of those were in Europe, six were in Latin America, two were in Africa (Morocco), and two were in the United States.
   The U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship is held on maroon clay in Houston and the women's Family Circle Cup on green clay in Charleston, S.C., both in April.
   Since Combs, a 52-year-old former co-owner of the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis, built his clay court in 2000, two other league members have followed suit. Combs said there's also one in Loomis, one in El Dorado Hills and perhaps two others in the Sacramento area.
   Why so few?
   "Good question," Beyer said. "A lot of people think they're hard to maintain. A lot of builders aren't familiar with (clay courts)."
   In contrast, "Two builders in Florida really embraced clay courts in the '70s," Beyer noted. "It's close enough to Virginia that shipping is not a big deal."
  Combs also suggested that "there's a perception of high maintenance" concerning clay courts. But isn't that true in Europe and Florida?
   "I don't get it," Combs confessed. "The truth is, it's not high maintenance. Maybe people in Europe are not as lazy."
   Beyer concedes that "you have to top-dress (a clay court) once a year in California and twice a year in Florida. The disadvantage is you have to take care of it. You can't leave it alone."
   But Beyer says it's worth it.
  "We believe clay helps develop your game -- the patience, the shot development, the spins," he said, adding that 88 percent of the top 10 players in the world in the year-end rankings since 1974 grew up on clay.
   Spain, where players grow up on clay, has three of the top 10 men in the world (No. 2 Rafael Nadal, No. 5 David Ferrer and No. 10 Nicolas Almagro), six of the top 30, eight of the top 50 and 13 of the top 100. Nadal, a 10-time Grand Slam singles champion, led Spain to its third Davis Cup title in four years this month.
  The United States, with more than six times Spain's population (313.2 million to 46.7 million), has one man in the top 10 (No. 8 Mardy Fish), three in the top 30, four in the top 50 and nine in the top 100.
  Is it any wonder that Patrick McEnroe, the general manager of USTA player development, is emphasizing more clay-court training and events for U.S. juniors? Nor does it hurt that Jose Higueras, the USTA director of coaching, is a former top-10 player from Spain.
   For the first time since 1998, the recent Orange Bowl junior tournament in Plantation, Fla., was held on clay.      
   " ... Higueras and I firmly believe that providing our juniors with more training and competition on clay will ultimately lead to more well-rounded players, and will better serve these players as their careers progress," McEnroe told usta.com. "Moving our largest and most prestigious international (junior) event back to clay will help teach our players more court awareness and better movement."

* * *

   Combs had planned to build a hard court, but Ramey Osborne, the Capitals' previous owner who re-purchased the team this month, urged his friend to put in a clay surface. Osborne lives in a planned development, featuring two hard courts, that his real estate company built 30 years ago in Fair Oaks. 

   "You know Ramey," Combs said. "That guy's a bulldog. I said, 'Ramey, I'm not going to put in clay.' He said: '(A clay court) is not much to maintain. If you put in a hard court, people won't play on it. They'll just meet at a club. But if you put in a clay court, you'll have something special. Everyone will want to come over and play.' He was right."   

    Combs chose Har-Tru over European-style red clay.

   "It's more suitable for California's climate," he explained. "It's not as dusty, and it doesn't stain clothes. It holds moisture better. You need something to retain moisture in a dryer climate. Moisture is important for the clay to stay compact and level so it doesn't dry up and blow away. Otherwise, it gets dusty."

   Har-Tru, actually composed of crushed stone, is made from billion-year-old Pre-Cambrian metabasalt found in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Forty tons, enough for a one-inch layer on one court, were transported from a quarry in Shadwell, Va., one mile from Har-Tru's headquarters in Charlottesville, by two flat-bed trucks, a train and then trucks again to Orangevale. Workers spread 3,000 bags of Har-Tru over a four-inch gravel base, weighing 150 tons, from a local quarry and a one-inch layer of rock dust.

   The court, including lights and an underground sprinkler system, took "seven or eight days" to build at a cost of $50,000, Combs said. The price today without lights is $80,000, about the same as a hard court, he added.

   Combs said he uses the sprinkler system up to four times a day in the summer but rarely in the winter. He does minor maintenance on the court annually and re-levels and re-rolls the court for $3,000 every three years. Combs said it costs approximately the same amount to resurface a hard court, which is recommended every five years.

   The biggest difference between playing on hard courts and clay, Combs said, is clay "is just slower. It's harder to put the ball away. I read that the average decrease in speed when a ball hits a hard court is 18 percent and that it's 43 percent on clay. You have more time to get to the ball. There are a lot of rallies. That's why a five-set match at the French Open is longer and more demanding."
   Boyls sees a "substantial difference" between playing on hard courts and clay.
   "On hard courts, you feel you can change direction at will," he said. "Here, you have to take (small) steps. My first season, I was all over the place falling down. You have to be more careful with your steps. You can't expect to make hard stops.
   "Movement is the biggest thing. You're going to get some different bounces. The ball is not always going to be where you think. You have to be able to adjust."

   David Floth, a 39-year-old league member who played at Iowa State, said "playing on clay is a blast. The points are longer, which makes it fun. I feel I can play a lot longer and play again the next day. The court is soft, so it's easier on the body." 

   Mike Norton, a 45-year-old league member and former Sac State player, said he prefers clay to hard courts.
   "It's fun sliding around. In the summer, (playing on clay) is huge. It can be 15 degrees cooler. You don't get the radiation from a hard court," Norton said.
   Clay also minimizes arguments over line calls because the ball leaves a mark where it bounces. According to league rules, the court is swept before a third set (to avoid confusion from multiple marks), and the losing team sweeps after the match.

* * *

   Combs began the league five years ago with an eight-player doubles round robin. Since then, it has grown into 24 doubles teams divided into four balanced divisions. Combs serves as the commissioner.
   The league did not offer singles this year, but Combs is contemplating a weekend tournament for next year.
   "It's easier to do a singles tourney and a doubles league," he said. "Not a lot of guys will play singles. It rains in the winter, and it's hot in the summer. We're experimenting."
   Most league members have a rating of 5.0 (very advanced) or higher, and the minimum is 4.5. Many, including all four finalists, played collegiately, and a few played professionally. Kelly (Pace) Wilson, 38, one of three women in the league, beat Lindsay Davenport in the juniors and reached the top 200 in the world in singles and doubles. Ages of league members range from 22 to 57, Combs said, with most in their 30s and 40s.
  Players paid an entry fee of $50 for the five-match, nine-week season, which lasted from Sept. 3 to Nov. 19. Matches were two out of three tiebreak sets with regular scoring. The top three teams in each division advanced to the single-elimination playoffs.
  Everything about the league -- from the caliber of play to the trappings of professional tournaments to the web site (www.sacramentoclaycourtleague.com) -- is first-class. No details are overlooked.
   The web site includes rules, standings, results, live scoring, a photo of the trophy (an acrylic tennis racket and ball on a base listing the past champions) and a countdown of the number of days until the 2012 season.
  League matches are "very serious," said Combs, a 5.0 player who reached the quarterfinals of the playoffs with Norton. "You watch someone try to serve out a match, and some good players can get tight and double-fault because they're close to winning.
   "It's not just the $1,200. It's nice to have a little pocket money, but it's not going to change anyone's life. People talk about (the league). It's special because there are a lot of good players."
   The "Wall of Shame" attests to the seriousness of the competition. Twenty-one smashed, weather-beaten rackets, each with a metal dog tag specifying the offender and date of the infraction, are attached to a waist-high fence on one side of the court. None, however, belong to Combs.
   "I'm not a racket thrower or breaker," he said. "We have plenty of guys that are, though. I saw a kid get hit in the teeth with a racket. I'll never forget it. His front teeth got knocked out. It was horrible.
   "A guy on my (high school) team threw his racket into the net. It caught the tape and bounced up. The match was over. I remember seeing blood going on the court."

* * *

   Combs' success on and off the court belies a difficult childhood, minimal tennis training as a junior and little college education.

   He owns Judi's Cleaners -- which has three stores, all in the Sacramento area -- and 20 percent of house2home Showcase, a home improvement publication based in Folsom. He and his wife, Mary, live in a four-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot California Spanish Style house. They have three children, all daughters in their 20s, and will celebrate their 30th anniversary in February.

   But Combs and his four siblings endured a rough upbringing. His mother was mentally ill, and his parents divorced when he was 11, throwing the family into poverty. He played competitive tennis for only one year in high school, and he did not even earn a two-year college degree.

   Two years after the divorce, Combs accidentally discovered tennis.

   "I saw some guys playing tennis in the park behind our house," he recalled. "I found a beat-up wood racket in the park, hit against the wall and got pretty good."
   Combs, the second of three children born in less than two years, played No. 3 singles as a sophomore in high school before his mother made him quit.
   "She thought it was frivolous," he said. "She had her own problems. She had five kids and no husband. She wanted me home. I had an interesting childhood."
   Combs' mother, Carmen, "struggled with what's now called bipolar disorder," he said. "Then, we just thought she was nuts. We didn't know why she said 'No' -- she just said it. She'd wake us up in the middle of the night to move furniture. We didn't know why. She had a hankering to get something done."
   Combs' younger sister Angela wrote and directed a movie loosely based on their mother's childhood, "Nothing Special," that premiered last month in Beverly Hills. Ben solicited almost all of the $300,000 budget for the film, starring Karen Black ("Easy Rider" with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, "Five Easy Pieces" with Jack Nicholson and "The Great Gatsby" with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow), from the Sacramento tennis community and contributed $15,000 himself.
   Combs' father, Charles, earned a master's degree in mathematics and worked as college professor and computer engineer. Ben described him as a "really smart guy" who "bounced around." After the divorce, Carmen and the kids went on welfare and food stamps.

   "If you don't think that's embarrassing for an 11- or 12-year-old ... " Combs lamented. "I remember trying to figure out how to pay at the supermarket without my friends seeing. That was my motivation. I thought about making money rather than going to school."

    Combs initially tried the conventional route, studying journalism at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, but did not graduate. 

   "I started making money," he said. "I (later) told my kids, 'You're not going to do that. You're going to go to college.' That's the smartest way to go. I got into the advertising business at 19. I made $4,000 in one month and thought I was set for life."

   Added Combs: "People are surprised when they find out I don't have a degree. But I was in a hurry. I wanted to make money. By following through and doing the right thing, I've been able to overcome not having a degree. You can learn a lot from attorneys, accountants and bankers. Trust me, I have a degree, just not a conventional one."
   Combs appears to have emerged from his childhood unscathed.
   "I work hard," he explained. "I'm kind of an overachiever. I enjoy business and productivity. That's one of the keys to coming out unscathed. I always remembered as a kid there would be a day when I'd control my own life. When I was 18, I moved out."
   Asked whether her husband has any emotional scars from his past, Mary said: "There are some issues, but even family members say they don't know how he came out of it. He's upbeat and doesn't dwell on it. He got past it. All the others have mental health issues and depression. He doesn't."

* * *

   Combs reluctantly picked up tennis again at 32 when he and Mary, then a 3.0 player and now a 3.5, went to a clay-court tennis resort at Hilton Head Island, S.C., in 1992 for their 10th anniversary. Mary wanted Ben to start playing with her.        

   "I didn't want to go to Hilton Head," Ben admitted. "She made me go."
   When they returned home, Mary began going to clinics at the Johnson Ranch Racquet Club in Roseville.

   "She said, 'You've got to see assistant pro Cris Bacharach,' Ben recalled. "I said, 'I'm not going to play. I'm too busy.' She made me: 'We're going to go to a drop-in drill.' That was the first time anyone helped me with instruction."

   Combs took a weekly private lesson from Bacharach, now the head pro at Johnson Ranch, for 10 years.

   "He started out as a "C" player, a garden-variety guy," Bacharach said. "He worked at it, and now he's one of the better men in town."

   And Bacharach plays in Combs' league.

   "He has a really good attitude," Bacharach said. "He enjoys himself all the time out there no matter now serious it gets."

   Especially on the clay court.

    "He's so happy," Osborne said. "He has friends he never would have had, he plays (three or four times a week), and he has the best players in Sacramento in his back yard. Dmitry Tursunov and other pros have played there, and up-and-coming juniors play there, too. Ben's the happiest guy in town."    

Bay Area's Bellis falls in Junior Orange Bowl final

   Claire Liu of Thousand Oaks defeated Catherine Bellis of Atherton 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 Friday to win the girls 12 title at the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables, Fla.
   Many of the top boys and girls 14 and 12 players in the world competed in the singles-only tournament. Here are the results of the other finals:
   Boys 14 -- Seongchan Hong (9), South Korea, def. Stefan Kozlov (4), Pembroke Pines, Fla., 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4.
   Girls 14 -- Katerina Stewart (6), Miami, def. Tornado Ali Black (1), Boca Raton, Fla., 6-1, 6-3.  
   Boys 12 -- Artem Dubrivnyy (1), Russia, def. Albert Lim, Philippines, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
 

Bellis reaches girls 12 final in Junior Orange Bowl

   Catherine Bellis of Atherton defeated Nicole Conard of Tyler, Texas, 7-5, 6-2 Thursday in the girls 12 semifinals at the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables, Fla.
   Bellis will face Claire Liu, a Thousand Oaks resident who crushed Riley McQuaid of Tustin 6-0, 6-0, in Friday's final.