CdM’s Matthews keeps eyes on prize

Watch Corona del Mar High senior Fabian Matthews for long enough, and it becomes clear that his forehand is his most potent weapon.

Matthews, who is headed to UC Irvine to play tennis collegiately, has the ability to whip a forehand winner from nearly anywhere on the court.

“That’s my signature shot,” he said with a grin. “I’ve got that so much in my high school matches. Every single kid I’ve played, they’ll say, ‘Don’t hit it to his forehand.’ And after the match, they’ll be like, ‘I wish I had your forehand.’ It’s pretty cool to be known as the kid with the big forehand.”

Still, the signs attached to the tennis courts at CdM won’t say that about Matthews.

The signs, which represent CIF titles, will show that Matthews is a winner.

He has won two consecutive CIF Southern Section Individuals championships in doubles with program graduate Dustin Hladek. Today, Matthews aims to make it three in a row, this time in singles. His quest resumes today at 11:30 a.m. at Seal Beach Tennis Center, in Round of 16 competition.

CIF titles don’t exactly grow on trees. Since the CIF Individuals began in 1922, only two boys’ players have won as many as three titles. They are Allen Cleveland and Jackie Douglas, both of Santa Monica, who combined for six straight tiles from 1949 to 1954.

So what Matthews is chasing may be historic, but it’s best not to count out the player who went 36-1 for the Sea Kings in dual match play.

CdM Coach Tim Mang won’t. Mang, who is retiring after this season ends, has watched Matthews’ development since he was playing No. 2 singles his freshman year behind Wesley Miller. Matthews went on to play No. 1 singles each of the last three years.

“He’s a lot stronger,” Mang said. “His serve is bigger. His volleys are better. Those are exactly the things he knew he needed to work on as a sophomore. And the doubles, under pressure, has helped his singles. He hits a nice slice backhand. He’s a much more well-rounded player.”

Even his one loss deserves mention. It came against Thousand Oaks’ Denis Lin in a CIF Southern Section Division I quarterfinal match that CdM lost on games. But the loss to Lin only came immediately after Matthews defeated Thousand Oaks junior Kyle McMorrow, who won the CIF singles division title at the prestigious Ojai Valley Tournament.

Matthews, the Sea Kings’ only singles player this year to consistently get wins, has taken on that burden.

“We’ve relied on him,” Mang said. “When we play a really good team, they get a lot of rest while Fabian is grinding out there. And he has to adjust to three different types of players.”

But if Matthews is on, there are few who can beat him. He’s ranked No. 8 in the United States Tennis Assn. Southern California boys’ 18s. And, even if his opponent is on, Matthews rarely gets blown off the court.

“He’s always been deceptively quick,” Mang said. “He has very good intuition on where the ball’s going. You watch a full set against even the best players and they don’t hit many winners against him.”

Yet, tennis doesn’t totally define Matthews. He plays at least two hours a day, training with Rick Leach at the Newport Beach Tennis Club, but he tries not to practice on weekends. He is just as eager to talk about the new “Grand Theft Auto IV” video game, or the new “Indiana Jones” movie. The video game is one he said his little brother, Andreas, an eighth grader who plays golf, has already mastered.

“It’s so much fun,” Matthews said. “My brother already beat it. He’s a psycho. It was like 27 hours [he played] or something. I think he’s better at that than at golf.”

Matthews’ sister Tisha, a sophomore at CdM, also plays tennis. And he and his father, Oscar, have had success in father-son tennis tournaments. Oscar, a cardiologist who works out of Anaheim and Temecula, also used to be quite a soccer player in his native Argentina.

“We have a house down there [in Argentina],” Fabian Matthews said. “I just went there for spring break. I ate a lot of meat. They’re the No. 1 exporter of meat or something. We had steaks every day.”

He’s also been apt to feast on his tennis competition, even when they’re ranked higher than Matthews. He said that’s part of the reason he wanted to go to UCI, so he could compete right away.

Mang said he also likes that aspect of Matthews’ demeanor.

“That’s why I think he’ll do well in college,” Mang said. “He loves the challenge of playing older players. As a freshman at UCI, he’ll be ready to play all the top players. That’s his attitude and that’s what I like.”

Another part of the reason he wanted to play collegiately, Matthews said, is so he can have a training program to add some muscle to his 155-pound frame, slender for a guy who stands 6-foot-2.

But Matthews is a fighter. He said his favorite victory also occurred against a higher-ranked player. It was when he defeated Reid Carleton of Florida, then ranked No. 11 in the nation, at the USTA National Championships last August. Carleton now plays for Duke.

“I was definitely not supposed to win,” Matthews said. “I went in there unseeded and took him out. There was a bunch of people watching, which was cool. [UC Irvine Coach] Trevor [Kronemann] was watching that match, too. Plus, I got ‘Player of the Day’ for the tournament, and had my picture up on the wall over there.”

There is no such honor at the Seal Beach Tennis Center for winning CIF Individuals. Still, making history should be good enough.

“That,” Matthews said, “would be really gnarly.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].