TENNIS: FINK, QUERREY REACH FINALS.

Byline: ERIK BOAL Special to the Daily News

OJAI - When the nation's top 16-year-old boys' tennis player fell short of his goal of winning a title Saturday at the 106th annual Ojai Valley Tournament, two of the area's most accomplished teenagers stepped onto the stadium courts at Libbey Park and stole the spotlight.

Harvard-Westlake of Studio City sophomore Ryan Thacher began the day with a three-set loss in the semifinals of the CIF singles draw, but USC freshman Amanda Fink and Thousand Oaks senior Sam Querrey didn't miss out on their opportunities to compete in today's championship matches.

Fink, a two-time Daily News All-Area Player of the Year at Calabasas High, atoned for a straight-set loss three weeks ago to Stanford's Alice Barnes to defeat the nation's fourth-ranked player 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the Pac-10 women's final. Fink - No. 10 in the country - will face No. 8 Suzi Fodor of Cal at 9:30 a.m.

Querrey, 18, advanced to title matches in both the men's open singles and doubles draws, the latter coming with personal coach and partner Grant Doyle of Westlake Village. Querrey - the 2004 CIF singles champion at Ojai - will face Chatsworth's Zbynek Mlynarik at 12:30 p.m., then team with Doyle to take on Nicholas Rainey and Brian Wilson at 3:30.

"It's different than (other tournaments) because there you're coming in as the underdog," said the top-seeded Querrey, who defeated Beverly Hills' Noah Newman 6-2, 6-4 in his singles semifinal and posted a 6-0, 6-0 victory to move on in doubles.

"It's tougher here because you're the No. 1 seed and you're expected to win."

Fink relished the role of being the underdog, winning 10 of the match's final 12games to reach an event final at Ojai for the second year in a row.

"I remember watching (former USC standout) Nicole Leimbach last year and I knew I wanted to have the opportunity to do that at some point during my college career," said Fink who reached the women's open final last year in singles and doubles, but had to default with an injury. "To be able to do so this year makes it even more exciting."

Thacher appeared on his way to becoming the first Harvard-Westlake player since Phillip Tseng in 1993 to reach the CIF singles final, but nagging injuries to his arm and groin were too much to overcome in a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 loss to Arroyo Grande's Andre Dome.

"The last couple of games (in the third set), he started putting the ball in the premier spot," Thacher said. "He played unreal. It's like he started repainting the lines with some of those shots."

--Glendale resident and former USC standout Maureen Diaz advanced to the women's open singles final with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Laguna Beach's Lyndsay Kinstler. She will face Ojai's Kasenia Milevskaya at 9:30 a.m.

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