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Mortera takes home bronze at tennis tournament Southern Oregon Tennis Club's Ric Mortera almost didn't make the trip to San Antonio for the USTA Super National Hard Court Tennis Championship held Aug. 5-12. A flu bug hit the 14-year-old junior tennis player pretty hard leaving him a little leery of making the trip to Texas. But he's glad he decided to make the trip now. Mortera nearly upset the top-seeded player en route to winning the Bronze Ball for his third-place effort. "The first few rounds seemed like I was running out of energy pretty fast," said the freshman-to-be at Ashland High. "But I felt better the later into the tournament I went." Mortera was seeded No. 4 and ranked 15th for boys 14's Division in the United State heading into the tournament. He took out third-seeded Ken Kao of Cuppertino, Calif., 6-1, 6-1 for third place and was also presented with the Sportsmanship award for the event. Mortera ousted 17th-seeded Paul Koenke of Colorado, 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 but then fell to top-seeded Andrew Orban of North Carolina in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-4. "He came out playing really well," said Mortera of his matchup with Orban. "He didn't give me a lot of opportunities, but when he did I wasn't taking advantage of them." Mortera was up a break serving at 4-3, before dropping the final set. "I thought I had him pretty good in the second set," said Mortera. "But I lost a few crucial points. "I'm pretty pleased with how I did, though." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.