Mississippi’s Collantes Is Repeat Winner at Riviera

For the second consecutive year, Paloma Collantes of the University of Mississippi won the Riviera All-American Tennis Championships, again defeating a Stanford player who went to high school in Southern California in the final.

This year, she defeated Laxmi Poruri, a Claremont High graduate, 6-7 (7-2), 7-5, 6-0, Sunday at the Riviera Tennis Club.

In last year’s final, Collantes defeated Heather Willens, a Palisades High graduate, 6-4, 6-3. This year, Willens was eliminated by UCLA freshman Keri Phebus in the second round.

Willens, however, teamed with Poruri to win the doubles title. The Stanford duo defeated Marouschka van Dijk and Titia Wilmink of Alabama, 7-5, 3-6, 6-0, in Sunday’s final.

Of her singles title, Collantes, who was seeded second and is ranked third by the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn., said: “It means more to win it the second time. I wanted to show it wasn’t luck last year.”

A dominating third-set performance gave Collantes the title. The junior won 24 of the set’s 30 points.

Collantes, the only non-Stanford player to reach this tournament’s singles final during the past five years, was aided in this strategy as Poruri struggled with her first serves.

“I thought I played pretty well in the first set, but then I went on a mental vacation in the second and even more so in the third,” said Poruri, who was seeded first and is ranked second by the ITA. “The key to my game is my serve and my percentage was really down in the third set.”

In the first set, neither player could hold serve in the third through sixth games. Both then remained on serve for the rest of the set, although Collantes had to overcome six unforced errors and a double fault to take the 10th game, which went to deuce six times.

Collantes won the first four games in the second set before Poruri took five of the next six. After trailing 15-40 in the 11th game, Collantes won the next four points for the game and broke Poruri in the 12th. Collantes won 32 of the final 39 points.

“Laxmi has a game that doesn’t suit mine,” said Collantes, a native of Peru who moved to the U.S. in 1987. “She serves great, volleys great and has a slice I have trouble with. I was adjusting to her game in the first set and started out better in the second set.”

This tournament is one of four making up the grand slam of collegiate tennis.