Lam upsets No. 2 player in country

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

When No. 86 defeats No. 2, the college tennis world takes notice.

LAM

Lam, who was home-schooled, scored the biggest college tennis upset of the fall season when he defeated his UCLA teammate, second-ranked Tobias Clemens of Bonn, Germany, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Region VIII-South Championships.

"Chris has all the physical attributes to succeed on an absolute scale," says Calvin Nii, who has overseen Lam's growth from a talented but obscure 16-year-old to potentially the most successful player from Hawai'i since Jim Osborne nearly 40 years ago.

"It's up to him how far he wants to go," Nii says. "We may be looking at a future Division I singles champion. ... If he wants to play on TV in five or six years, he's certainly on the right path."

For Lam, helping UCLA win a national championship (the Bruins have finished third the last two years) and qualifying for the NCAA individual championship tournament are sufficient goals for now.

He says the way he beat Clemens is the way he tries to play all his matches. "I ran him from side to side and made him work a lot harder than he was making me work.

"I try to play very high percentage tennis, not anything too risky. I try not to give them anything, no freebies," Lam explains. "If I have a guy on the run and get a short ball, I'll come in to finish off a point, but most of the time I try to grind it out from the baseline."

UCLA coach Billy Martin, who admits to being pleasantly surprised by his sophomore transfer, says Lam "uses his mind quite well on the court. He doesn't try to blow guys off the court with a big serve and volley; he forces his opponent to be impatient."

Lam was chosen male Freshman of the Year by West Coast Conference tennis coaches last season at Santa Clara, but he wanted a bigger challenge. "I was looking to go to a Pac-10 school," he said.

At UCLA, he has found that practicing with teammates who are "some of the best guys in the nation." (In the preseason Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings, Bruin men were ranked Nos. 2, 12, 16, 35, 86 (Lam) and 95.)

"It's not as intimidating to play them in a match when you practice with them every day," Lam said.

That was the case on Oct. 26 when he was down 6-2, 4-1 and two service breaks against Clemens. "He hung in there and had the fortitude to win a long, three-set match," Martin said. "He is very fit and strong and he can go all day."

Lam said, "That broke the barrier, my first top 10 win. I've had some close matches with top 10s, but never broke through before."

Last spring Lam forced then-No. 1 David Martin of Stanford and then-No. 5 Al Garland of Pepperdine to tiebreakers in the first set. He beat four top-100 opponents, including No. 28 Danny Westerman of Wisconsin.

Lam was in and out of national collegiate rankings three times last season, reaching No. 104 briefly. After beating Clemens, he jumped to No. 6 in the West region and when the first 2003 national rankings are published by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association on Jan. 13, he could be as high as 45th, an official predicted.

SHORT LOBS: The last players from Hawai'i to make the top 50 in national collegiate singles rankings were Lahainaluna grads Jean Okada and Ryan Ideta. Okada reached No. 25 in women's singles for UC-Santa Barbara in 1994 and '96 and Ideta got to 36th for LSU in '94. Okada's No. 30 in 1996 is the highest final ranking by a Hawai'i player. Ideta, who is head women's tennis coach at UH-Hilo, and Punahou grad Chris Dudley of Kailua finished 19th in doubles for LSU in 1996. ... The most successful collegiate player ever from Hawai'i was 1963 Punahou grad Jim Osborne. Playing before there were collegiate rankings, Osborne was a first-team All-American (top seven at nationals) in 1965 and second-team All-American (top 15) in 1966 and '67 for Utah. He played on the U.S. Davis Cup championship team in 1968 and won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Mexico City the same year. Osborne is expected to retire in May after 16 years as head men's tennis coach at BYU-Provo. ... Chris Lam was home-schooled from second through 12th grade by his mother, Patricia, who has a degree in mathematics. He started playing tennis at age 5 and said home-schooling "helped with tennis a lot." ... He said the transition from no school to a moderately small school (Santa Clara) to a very large school (UCLA) "has been mostly good. ... The academics are tough, but I've been keeping up. ... They provide athletic tutoring." ... Lam won the Southern California Intercollegiates last month and finished the fall season 13-3. At Santa Clara in 2001-02, he was 25-9. He has won 24 of his last 28 collegiate matches.