Teen's full focus is on tennis

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By KEVIN STOTT

VIEW STAFF WRITER

She may be the best young athlete in Las Vegas nobody has really heard about.

Seventeen-year-old Cristala Andrews, the top-ranked 18-and-under junior girl in Nevada and the second-ranked player in the Southwest by the junior tennis Web site TennisRecruiting.net doesn't get a great deal of press because she is a home-schooled touring player who doesn't attend a high school here.

Those in-the-know in the tennis community are aware of Andrews, but perhaps most sports fans in Las Vegas have never even heard of Andrews, who along with 16-year-old Asia Muhammad, provides hope for a future star from Las Vegas on the women's professional tour.

Ranked as the No. 8 college prospect in the class of 2007 by the site, Andrews has been offered scholarships from prestigious schools.

"I think I do want to go to college," said Andrews, putting cream cheese on a bagel at the Bagel Cafe, owned by her parents, Savvis and Shari Andrews. "After July 1, people can call you,": Andrews said. "I've heard from Georgia Tech. Northwestern called me. I've also heard from Virginia, North Carolina, Texas and Georgia."

The most important rankings for juniors -- those put out by the United States Tennis Association -- placed Andrews at No. 24 in her 18-and-under age group, something the teen is aware of, but not something she lets dictate her life.

"The rankings are definitely important because just getting into tournaments your ranking has to be at a certain level," Andrews said. "But it's not all I think about. I just try and think about getting better. Being ranked where I am now is pretty cool because I haven't played that many tournaments. I've only played like three or four (18-and-under) tournaments, so to be ranked that high after only a few tournaments is pretty good. And I know if I play a lot more I could probably be (in the) top five."

Andrews said being a traveling junior player can be difficult.

"It's really hard here in Las Vegas to find people to hit with," she said. "I try to find ways to hit with people because everybody travels at different times. I trained in Texas two years ago and I liked it because I didn't have to worry about finding people to hit with."

Andrews said she had not developed any local rivalries, but did name her picks for the best players in town.

"I do feel like me and Asia are the top girls here," Andrews said. "We're not really competitive because I think she kind of looks up to me because I've always been older to her, but now she's catching up to me because she's getting better. She's a tall girl. She beat me the last time we played. I don't like losing to her just because it's Asia."

A couple of impressive wins last fall -- an upset of the No. 3-seed Ellah Nze in Tulsa in October, and a two-set win over Stanford-bound Lindsay Burdette in South Carolina in November -- are two of Andrews' personal best matches, but it was actually a loss that Andrews said was most memorable.

"I lost to this girl from Romania in Mexico," Andrews said of her match with Mihaela Buzarnescu at the XlX Copa Mundial Yucatan in Merida, Mexico in December. "It was three sets. And coming into the match I thought I would lose pretty badly. It was the most fun I had. I was making some amazing shots."

Andrews said playing tennis has always been a part of her life.

"I just love tennis and I love traveling and I never pictured myself really doing anything else except tennis," she said. "I think I got started when I was about 5. When we moved here, it was something for me to do, like a pee wee clinic, because I was pretty athletic."

Making sure Andrews develops into the best player she can be is Tim Blenkiron, UNLV's 1997 NCAA doubles champion. Blenkiron said Andrews stood out right from the start.

"I've coached her since she was 9," Blenkiron said. "I was working at Canyon Gate Country Club and I guess that was close to her house so they brought her over there. I had some old kids -- I had some 17-year-olds and 16-year-olds -- some pretty good players and we had them broken into two groups. And the older kids used to ask to be on (her) court every day because she would literally dive headfirst into the ground to get balls. And they loved her."

Blenkiron said Andrews' love of the game drove her in those formative years.

"It was determination more than anything. And I think she really loved the sport at the time," he said. "I talk to her about this a lot. When you go through the gauntlet of playing a high-level sport, if you want to be successful at it, you actually have to go back to the mentality you had when you fell in love with the sport. Otherwise it just gets way too stressful and all you can think about is winning. The reason we all picked up the game in the first place is because we just loved to do it."

Blenkiron, also the coach of Team Agassi where he is working with Muhammad, said Andrews' game has made great strides.

"She's improved a ton. I remember when she went to the first (under) 12 Supernationals and I think she only lost one match and it was to the No. 1 seed," he said. "And then fast forward to the 16-and-unders, where she was fifth in the clay courts ... She's always been a pretty steady player."

Andrews sees Blenkiron as a big brother of sorts who can help her with any aspect of her game.

"He's definitely one of the best people I've ever met," said Andrews. "He's pretty much like family to me because I've known him since I was young and he's seen me grow up. I think he's an amazing coach. I think he knows more about the mental game than any other person and even the physical part, too, because he was good when he played, so he knows. He's definitely one of the favorite people that I know. He definitely means a lot to me."

Andrews said Blenkiron is best at getting inside his students' heads.

"He helps me the most with mental stuff," she said. "And he sees everything. Any little thing that's wrong, he can notice it. And he knows my game better than anyone else."

Besides getting professional advice from Blenkiron for eight years, Andrews has been getting support from her parents, who have given their eldest daughter the freedom to pursue her dream.

"They've helped me with everything," Andrews said. "And they've always believed in me. And that's the most important thing."

Despite her potential and the support, Andrews said she realizes becoming a pro in any sport is very hard.

"If I could, that's always been like my dream job. If I could do anything with my life, it would be that," Andrews said. "But if I go to college and find a career I really want to pursue, then I'd be fine with not being a professional tennis player."

If not a tennis player, then what?

"I'm thinking something like sports medicine, maybe become a sports agent, something in sports," she said. "Or maybe just becoming a doctor."

Andrews said it makes sense that international players are dominating the ranks of her sport.

"It doesn't really surprise me that they're so successful because those girls don't get a lot, they're not brought up having a lot of things," she said. "They have to work hard for everything. I think their work ethic is a lot different than Americans and I also think their countries push them more. They just choose the girls and then push them until they're highly ranked. It makes me feel kind of spoiled sometimes. I did work hard but I think compared to them it's a whole different level."

Right now, the junior tennis phenom is coming off participating in one of the biggest annual events for juniors -- the 2006 Nationals in San Jose, Calif. Results were unavailable as of press time.

Andrews was looking forward to the big tourney.

"It's going to be a tough tournament because everybody plays this," she said. "If you win 18s Nationals, you get a wild card into the Women's U.S. Open main draw."

Blenkiron, who said he was trying to work on getting Andrews to attack the net more, said he knows his student has her work cut out for her to continue competing against the best of the best.

"At that level she's trying to play, there's so many good athletes and so many good ball strikers that you have to have a gauntlet of tools available to you if you want to succeed," he said.

In the long run, Blenkiron said it's all up to Andrews to see how far she can go.

"She could be a very good player, but it all depends on how much she's willing to sacrifice and how much she learns mentally," Blenkiron said. "And at the end of the day, it's going to come down to her."