A Beautiful Backhand – Manhattan Tennis Open showcases local stars

By Paul Teetor

The first thing you notice about Mia Sandblom’s tennis game is her picture-perfect backhand.

Mira Costa’s top singles player, Mia Sandblom, prepares to hit a backhand down the line in her semifinal match at the Manhattan Beach Open Saturday afternoon. The racket is starting low so she can finish high with plenty of topspin. Her two-handed backhand has been compared favorably to Maria Sharapova’s. Photos by Kevin Cody

The racket is starting low so she can finish high with plenty of topspin. Her two-handed backhand has been compared favorably to Maria Sharapova’s. Photos by Kevin Cody“Mechanically, it’s perfect,” said longtime Mira Costa tennis coach Allen Yap, who coaches both the boys and the girls teams. “The first time I saw it I said we are not going to change a single thing about it. The stroke production is flawless.”

The compact, two-handed stroke is so effective that Sandblom, only a freshman, immediately took over as the number one singles player for Costa this year.

Expectations for her sophomore year are even higher.

“The great thing about her backhand is that it’s just going to get better and better as she grows into it,” Yap said. “It’s a lot like Maria Sharapova’s backhand: powerful and pointed. She can hit it anywhere she wants.”

The strengths – and weaknesses — of the 15-year-old phenom were on full display Saturday afternoon in a thrilling semifinal match in the Women’s Open division of the Manhattan Beach Open. Matched against her doubles partner, Myla Stoll, who will play at Pomona College this fall, Sandblom couldn’t find the range on her ground strokes in the first set. 

Consistently attacking Sandblom’s forehand, Stoll jumped out to a 2-0 lead with an immediate break of serve and then rolled to a 6-2 first set win. The sun was broiling the court like a rotisserie chicken, and Stoll was thriving in the oven. At the same time, Sandblom wilted in the heat, double faulting several times and making numerous unforced errors on her forehand.

 

But Sandblom recovered her poise, her strokes and her game in the second set. It was easy to see why so many tennis experts say she has a bright future in the game. Running around her forehand to smack blistering backhands every chance she got, Sandblom dominated the backhand-to-backhand cross court rallies. 

Then, just as Stoll was edging over to protect her backhand, Sandblom would drill a down-the-line backhand that landed deep, often for a clean winner. Now in full flight, the lanky, 5-foot-10 player cruised through the second set, taking it 6-0 with her confidence cresting.

But under tournament rules there would be no third set for the players. Instead, they played a super tiebreaker, which is just like a regular tiebreaker but played to 10 points instead of 7, still winning by a margin of 2 points. 

Coming off her love set in the second set, Sandblom figured to dominate the super tiebreaker. But Stoll said she decided to get back to basics as the tie-breaker began.

“I just kept telling myself to fight, fight, and to get every ball back,” she said. “And play to her forehand, not her backhand.”

It paid off as Stoll jumped out to a 3-1 lead, which is a significant lead in a regular tie-breaker. But in a super tiebreaker there was plenty of time to come back – which is exactly what Sandblom did. Working her inside-out backhand for several down-the-line winners, Sandblom roared back to grab an 8-6 lead and appeared to have the match well in hand.

But there was one more chapter still to come, and it was not a good ending for the Mira Costa star. Suddenly she began cautiously slicing her forehands instead of driving them, and Stoll jumped all over the floating balls that sat up with little court penetration.

“I tried to play to her forehand, because I knew that was her weaker side,” Stoll said. “But she is a very talented player, and she’s only 15 so she has a great future to look forward to.”       

There’s a reason why Sandblom is such a good player at such an early age: her father, Johan Sandblom, was a top ranked player in Sweden back in the 1990’s when Sweden was still a force in international tennis. It was more than a decade past the dominant era of Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander, but there were still some highly ranked Swedish players like Mikael Tillstrom, Tomas Enquist and Jonas Bjorkman.

“Those guys were much better than me, but I grew up practicing and playing with them,” Sandblom said.

And after he moved to the USA, Sandblom soon had a new practice partner: his daughter Mia.

“He would come and hit with her for more than an hour just about every day,” Yap said. “It’s so important to develop good strokes and good habits early, and she had a great coach and teacher in her father.”

Myla Stoll, who beat Sandblom in the Women’s Open Division semifinals, went on to lose the Open Division Final to Megan McKay of Ocean Side. The Men’s Open Division Final was won by Sohrob  Yavari of Fountain Valley. Both winners received $1,500 in prize money.         

The finals of all the divisions were played Sunday at the Manhattan Country Club. Sandblom and the woman who beat her in the singles semifinals, Myla Stoll, teamed up to win the Women’s Doubles in the Open Division. In the Men’s Doubles Open Division, Eric Basica and Rylan Rizza of Redondo Beach took home the trophy.

And there were some interesting family affairs in the Finals played Sunday in the lower divisions. In the 

Men’s 4.5 Singles final, Noah Daniels of Manhattan Beach beat his father, Larry Daniels.

And in the Men’s 4.5 Doubles the father son team of Tim Crawmer and George Crawmer of Manhattan Beach teamed up to take home the trophy.

Other champions with local ties included Chris Diep and Jason Alvarado, who teamed up to win the 

Men’s 3.5 Doubles crown; David Lam of Manhattan Beach, who won the 4.0 singles;

Melissa Wolfgang of Manhattan Beach, who won the 3.5 singles crown; and Don Kuroyama of Manhattan Beach, who won the Over 60 3.5 Men’s Singles with an impressive all-court game.                                                                                                   

Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER