BRYAN TWINS DOMINATE AT HOME.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Daily News Staff Writer

Stanford University twins Mike and Bob Bryan came home Thursday to the 97th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament.

Longtime participants in this classic as youth players, the Camarillo twins are part of the main attraction this year in the Pacific-10 Championships.

The step-up in levels was hardly evident. They were dominant in Friday's singles quarterfinals in easy first- and second-round matches.

Today they'll join forces in an opening-round doubles match. They've won four straight doubles titles at Ojai (two 16-under, two CIF).

``This is home for us,'' said Bob Bryan, who beat David Sutton of Cal 6-1, 6-2) and Nick Williams of Washington 6-0, 6-1. ``It's nice because we get to play in front of our family and friends. You can't ask for anything better.''

In this small, picturesque town where locals welcome strangers with a hearty good morning and the orange juice is always fresh and sweet, the freshman phenoms enjoy the familiar surroundings.

After an intense Pac-10 regular season, including emotional matches against UCLA and USC last week, sleepy Ojai offers a welcome change of pace.

``It's sort of relaxing,'' Bob Bryan said. ``We've been going at it pretty hard lately, so this is nice.''

While nothing seems to change here from year to year, the Bryans are both noticeably different. The once skinny prep stars have sprouted into tall, sturdy college players. Their games have grown in stature as well.

Both used powerful serves and laser-like ground strokes to power through the first two rounds.

``Their size is going to allow them to dominate so many different ways,'' said Stanford coach Dick Gould. ``Once they start getting more confidence, they'll be outstanding.''

Other Pac-10 men to reach the quarterfinals include UCLA's Kevin Kim and USC's Pat Gottesleben.

In Pac-10 women's play, Stanford's Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks and Harvard-Westlake High School was defeated by Vicky Maes of Arizona in the second round.

Local players who did well include Nick Weiss of Calabasas, who advanced to the CIF singles quarterfinals, and Westlake's Helena Horak, who reached the 18-under quarterfinals.

The Bryans have always been outstanding backcourt players willing to sit back, slug it out with opponents and then pounce on mistakes. Gould has urged them to take advantage of their strength and size by going to the net more often.

They showed glimpses of that on Thursday, but it's only a matter of time before it becomes a more regular plan of attack.

``It's easy to say but harder to do,'' Gould said. ``You've got to have confidence in yourself to be more aggressive. Sometimes it's easy to stay back and wait. But it's coming along for them.''

It's been an interesting first year at Stanford for the brothers. Mike, who beat Sasha Rampazzo of Washington 6-1, 6-1 and Gustavo Marcaluto of Arizona State 6-4, 6-3 Thursday, missed part of the year with tendinitis in his wrist, costing him valuable early court time.

He only recently regained full strength but managed to compile a 19-4 record. Three of those losses came in a tournament just days after he returned to action.

``That's still a heck of a record,'' Gould said.

Bob has been injury-free while putting together a 22-4 record. He's using Ojai as a tune-up for the upcoming NCAA regionals, May 9-11. Mike probably needs a good showing for the rest of the tournament to qualify for the 64-seed regionals after breaking into the top 100 recently.

A strong tournament in doubles will ensure a high seeding for the NCAA Tournament, which will be at UCLA May 17-25.