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To Dye for photo by Drew Fleming Ric Mortera Ric Mortera leaves his coach seeing orange after his recent success on the tennis courts By TIM TROWER Frank Inn doesn�t split hairs when quantifying the recent tennis championship by one of his students, Ric Mortera. Colors hairs, yes; split them, no. Mortera, Brown come up short at Lithia Medford�s Ric Mortera and Jenny Brown both came up short Sunday, each losing their finals match at the 2001 Lithia Motors Junior Tennis Championships at the Southern Oregon Tennis Club. Mortera, the No. 2 seed in the boys 16-year-old singles, fell to top-seeded Charn Bak of Beaverton in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. The second-seeded Brown fell to another Bak, Ester, in the girls 18 singles finale, 6-2, 6-4. In the boys 18 singles consolation finals, Medford�s Jeremy Leever dropped a tough match to Colby Jager of Corvallis, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Ashland�s Justine Bowen-Jones advanced to the consolation finals in girls 16 singles but lost to Roseburg�s Becky Correll, 6-2, 6-2. BOYS 16 Singles FINALS � Charn Bak (1), Beaverton, def. Ric Mortera (2), Medford, 6-3, 6-2. Consolation FINALS � Tim Chang, Portland, def. Eric Pickard, Portland, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Doubles FINALS � Tim Chang-Tyler Wilson, def. Tim Marsh-Eric Pickard, 8-4. 18 Singles FINALS � Ricky Butenko (1), Graham, Wash., def. Peter Farkas (2), Victoria, B.C., 6-3, 6-1. Consolation FINALS � Colby Jager, Corvallis, def. Jeremy Leever, Medford, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Doubles FINALS � Ricky Butenko-Aaron Spencer, def. Joel Halberg-Kyle Halberg, 8-6. GIRLS 16 Singles FINALS � Amanda Taylor (1), Richland, Wash., def. Emily Kircham (2), Fairview, 6-1, 6-4. Consolation FINALS � Becky Correll, Roseburg, def. Justine Bowen-Jones, Ashland, 6-2, 6-2. Doubles FINALS � Emily Kircham-Monica Young, def. Petrel Chapman-Hillary Collins, 8-4. 18 Singles FINALS � Ester Bak (1), Beaverton, def. Jenny Brown (2), Medford, 6-2, 6-4. Consolation FINALS � Alison Stoloff, Portland, def. Cassie Sailey, Roseburg, 6-1, 6-2. "To win a national tournament is a rarity," the director of the Southern Oregon Tennis Club says from beneath a garish mop of orange hair, the result of a deal with his protege gone horribly wrong. "You just don�t have that many kids around the nation winning national tournaments. It�s hard. The competition is tough." Mortera, a 14-year-old St. Mary�s eighth-grader, accomplished the feat last week � not once, but twice � when he won the USTA National Open BG Tournament 14-under singles and doubles titles at The Claremont Club in Claremont, Calif., Tuesday. In singles, he defeated fourth-seeded Carsten Ball, of Newport Beach, Calif., 6-1, 6-0. Later that day � the tournament was delayed by rain � he and partner Sergy Vagramyan of Glendale, Calif., marched through quarterfinal, semifinal and finals matches, winning the championship, 6-4, 6-4, over Jordan Colman of Indian Wells, Calif., and Jeffrey Zeller of Englewood, Colo. Mortera ended last year as the top-ranked 14-year-old in the Pacific Northwest Section and can continue to play in that age division until a month before his 15th birthday, which is in November. However, except for national events, he has been playing up a division and is currently ranked No. 1 in the 16-under class. That�s one of the reasons he�s improved week by week, says Inn, and one of the reasons he finds himself in exceedingly rare company. To Inn�s recollection, not since Jonathan Stark in the mid-1980s has one of his students won a national tournament. Mortera�s brush with success activated the hair-brained deal Inn made. He and Mortera were at a Southern California national event last November similar to the one in Claremont. Mortera wanted to bleach his hair tips, but they didn�t find time. Mortera went on to place third, playing poorly in the semifinals. Inn needled him about it: "I said, �Ya know, Ric, you need more incentive. You weren�t fired up. Where�s the motivation?�" Mortera responded that had Inn gotten him to a hair salon, the result might have been different. Inn said maybe next time. Mortera countered that Inn should have his black hair bleached, too. Inn then struck the deal: win a national tournament within a year, and he�d humor him with hue. "It came out differently than I thought it would," admits Inn, who will grow his hair out for two weeks, then get it cut. Similarly, Mortera will continue to grow. While Inn cautions that a national title doesn�t portend success on the men�s professional tour, such as Stark achieved, he does acknowledge it�s a good sign. Mortera�s goal for the Claremont tourney was to make the semifinals. That would earn him a berth in the Easter Bowl, among the largest of the junior national tournaments, which is held in Palm Springs, Calif. Once he made the semis, he realized he�d set his sights too low. "It suddenly hit me that I could win," Mortera says, "and that�s when things pretty much picked up. I had a lot of momentum going and felt pretty confident about everything I was doing. Everything just flowed well from then on." It was epiphanic, "the first time I ever really felt that way," he says. "It�s the most confident I�ve ever felt." He lost only 13 games in the tournament. Mortera has been playing tennis for half of his life. He evolved quicker than most, in part because the game�s nuances don�t easily evade him. His greatest asset, aside from a stubborn competitive spirit, is his ability to move his opponent like a chess piece, side to side, up, back, all the while keeping himself in good position. "Developing a mature feel for the ball at this age," says Inn, "is a little rare. You need to hit a lot of tennis balls to be able to hit that kind of ball." Mortera has worked recently on getting stronger and becoming more offensive, more aggressive. In Claremont, he was able to "dominate the point," says Inn. Mortera�s previous crowning achievement had been going 2-2 in the Tucson, Ariz., Fiesta Bowl in December. It, like the Easter Bowl, is a supernational tournament. Claremont was mid-level, drawing mostly Western-states players, with some from the Midwest and Canada. At the Fiesta Bowl, Mortera dispatched the 18th seed. There were 128 players in his division. "That sort of started my momentum," he says. "It showed me I have what it takes to beat these guys." And not by just a hair. Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.