USC’s Black Joins the Fast Lane : Tennis: It’s not Byron, but rather his unseeded younger brother Wayne who wins at Indian Wells.

INDIAN WELLS —  A USC tennis player was seeded to win this year’s 11th annual Adidas Invitational tournament, and that’s exactly what happened here Sunday.

Except, it was the wrong USC player.

The title, and a spot in the March 1-7 Newsweek Champions Cup that goes with it, was won by Wayne Black, a 19-year-old Trojan sophomore who, until Sunday, was pretty much known in tennis circles merely as the brother of Byron Black.

Byron won this tournament in 1991, and after graduating from USC, has gone on to a pro career that finds him ranked about No. 100 in the world. But even with those credentials, Byron probably will have to fight through qualifying just to get into the draw for the Newsweek event here at the Hyatt Grand Champions hotel. His baby brother is already in.

Wayne did so by quickly finishing off Anders Eriksson of the University of Texas in Sunday’s final, 6-2, 6-0. Black faced only one break point and allowed only three points against his serve in the second set. And this was against a Swede four years his senior, who has beaten fellow countryman Nicklas Kulti, now a high-ranking international star, all five times they have played.

Wayne Black wasn’t even a longshot entering this tournament. He was off the board. While his USC teammate and defending champion Brian MacPhie was the top-seeded player, Black went unseeded. And when MacPhie went out in the first round with an injury, Black took up the cause for the Trojans and brought them their 11th title out of a possible 20 in singles and doubles since the tournament began in 1983.

Black was lightly regarded for a reason. He plays well down the list in the Trojan lineup, and could be as low as No. 4 or 5 Wednesday when the Trojans open their dual-match season at home against UC-Santa Barbara.

“Quite frankly, the only reason he got a scholarship was that he was Byron Black’s brother,” said Carl Neufeld, Trojan assistant coach, who guided Black through his final victory here Sunday. “In fact, we were the only school to offer Wayne a full scholarship, and we didn’t even do that until May, just three or four months before he had to come to school. The truth is, he just didn’t have the results that would warrant a scholarship offer.”

The plan was, according to Neufeld, to work on Black’s game his freshman year and probably have him sit out the season as a redshirt. But then, he played so well, going 24-1 at Nos. 4 and 5, that the new plan was to perhaps have him redshirt this season.

Now, that plan probably will be junked, too.

“He won’t play No. 1, because MacPhie is there,” Neufeld said, “but he sure looks like he can move up the ladder quickly now.”

If Wayne Black’s junior results were not impressive, his tennis background is. He comes from Zimbabwe and is one of three children in the family. Besides his older brother’s success, his father, Donald, once made it to the final 32 at Wimbledon, and his 13-year-old sister recently won the girls’ 18 national title.

Wayne Black is also one-half of Zimbabwe’s Davis Cup team, which made it out of the African zone last year and into the Euro-African Group 1 level this year, where it will play Norway in late March. Byron Black is the other half of the Zimbabwe team.

“We beat Ghana, Ivory Coast and Morocco last year,” Wayne Black said. “The first two weren’t very good, but Morocco was tough.”

So March will be busy for Wayne Black, former unheralded college tennis player. In the first week, he will be in the main draw of a major pro tournament, probably getting a first-round match against a player he only knows about from reading or watching on TV. Later in the month, he will fly off to Norway to play in an advanced Davis Cup round. And all this squeezed around classes and dual matches at USC.

“I thought he had a chance to go places,” Neufeld said. “I just didn’t think this fast.”

Later in the day, Eriksson got his berth in the Newsweek tournament, but in doubles, joining with Texas teammate Trey Phillips to beat Michael Sass and Jeff Belloli of San Diego State, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.