ABRAMS PASSES FINAL EXAM.

Byline: Dana Haddad Daily News Staff Writer

Geoff Abrams soundly beat Noah Newman in another championship tennis match Sunday, winning the Mercedes Benz Cup Wild Card prequalifying tournament at the Racquet Centre in Studio City.

Abrams romped to a 6-2, 6-2 victory that moved him into Saturday's main qualifier for the Mercedes Benz Cup, which starts July 27 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

This brings up the notion that the Abrams who lost to Newman in May wasn't the real Abrams.

Newman, who will be a sophomore at UCLA, eliminated Abrams in three sets in the quarterfinals of the Pacific-10 Conference singles tournament at Ojai. It was a far departure from the 6-2, 6-0 trouncing he took from Abrams a year earlier at Ojai in the final of the boys' 18-and-under singles event.

But Abrams, who will be a junior at Stanford, said he couldn't concentrate in his loss to Newman because he had to rush back to his Ojai motel to take an organic chemistry exam at 1:05 p.m. - the same time his classmates were to take it in Palo Alto. Then he had to fax his answers to his professor.

``I kept thinking, `If I get a zero on this test, I'm (in trouble),' '' Abrams said.

He passed and everything has worked out since. Abrams, who has earned eight ATP Tour points playing small professional events this summer, aced Sunday's test. He never lost on serve while breaking Newman's serve four times, twice in each set.

In fact, this match had much to do with serving. Abrams won 88 percent of the time he got his booming first serve in, and he was 45 percent on his second serves. Newman continued to be plagued by control problems. His percentages were only 64 and 27.

``I didn't have much confidence in it,'' Newman said. ``It was totally out of whack. At the end, I was just hitting second serves.''

Abrams also got the better of Newman on key points: deuces, adds and break-point opportunities. In the first set, Abrams came up with six winners and made only two unforced errors. Newman, conversely, erred on seven and won only two.

With his powerful serve-and-volley style that has become a near necessity for the pro circuit, Abrams was 26-0 in dual singles matches at Stanford last season and said he is only a year or two away from joining the tour. Not bad for a guy who was taken off the U.S. Junior National team two years ago because he wasn't good enough.

``They did the right thing,'' Abrams said, referring to the decision by United State Tennis Association junior development program coaches. ``I wasn't putting up the results. I don't blame them. But it made me want to win more and prove myself.''

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PHOTO Hard-serving Geoff Abrams of Stanford has earned eight ATP points in small tournaments this summer.

Phil McCarten/Daily News