Thousand Oaks’ McMorrow wins CIF boys’ final

Moments after blasting a clean forehand winner on triple match point, Kyle McMorrow raised both arms in the air and let out a huge sigh of relief. After years of watching others make history at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament, the junior from Thousand Oaks High finally made some of his own.

McMorrow needed just over an hour to beat Crossroads senior Reese Milner, 6-1, 6-3, in the finals of the CIF boys’ singles division Saturday afternoon on Court 3 at Libbey Park – a victory that was much more satisfying because his grandfather and past president of the famed tournament, William Huffman, was there to share it with him.

“Incredible!” said Huffman, who presided over The Ojai in 1979-80 and often took McMorrow to the event. Asked if he gets nervous watching his grandson play, Huffman said: “Yes. I’m always nervous.”

He scarcely had enough time to get worried on Saturday. McMorrow, seeded No. 2 in the 64-player draw, sprinted to a 3-0 lead in the opening set and when he broke Milner to take a 3-2 lead in the second, it was evident to everyone watching that the coveted Farnam Cup would soon be his.

“It’s great, this is a really cool tournament and this is by far the best match I played,” said McMorrow, who used to live in Ojai and attended Nordhoff High. “I moved to Thousand Oaks a few years ago and this is the first year I’ve played high school tennis. Of course I won the Easter Bowl doubles [with Lancers teammate Denis Lin] a few weeks ago but I didn’t do that great in singles so this makes up for it.”

Milner had rallied from a set down in sweltering heat to knock off top-seeded Fabian Matthews of Corona del Mar in his late morning semifinal and clearly did not have enough left to pull off his second upset in five hours. The final point was a prime example, as he made little effort to chase his opponent’s forehand, which bounced just inside the baseline.

“He’s from SoCal so I know how he plays,” McMorrow said of Milner. “He hits it deep and heavy and I came within two points of losing to him the last time we played” in the semifinals of the California Bowl in Calabasas last December.

McMorrow’s triumph marked the third consecutive leap year in which a player from Thousand Oaks won the Ojai singles title, following Philip Sheng in 2000 and Sam Querrey in 2004.

In the doubles final, third-seeded Charlie Alvarado and Christopher Freeman of Mater Dei defeated Tyler Bowman and Jonathan Kazarian of Peninsula, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. After ousting second-seeded Ryan Cheung and Jason Lin earlier in the day, Alvarado and Freeman broke the Mater Dei duo in the opening game and held serve to win the first set. Mater Dei’s duo broke to go up 5-4 in the third set and Alvarado fought off three break points to serve out the match.

Thousand Oaks freshman Marcos Giron lost in the boys’ 16s singles final to Weil Academy’s David Watson, 7-6 (6), 6-3.

The top-seeded Giron trailed 5-2 in the first set but rallied to take a 6-5 lead. He failed to convert a set point in the 12th game and sprayed a forehand long to lose the tiebreaker.

“I missed shots I normally make,” said Giron, who was cheered on from the stands by Lancers teammate McMorrow, who was resting before his singles final. “When I come back like that I usually close it out.”

Giron had not lost more than four games in a set in four matches on his way to the finals.

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Her final victory was anticlimactic but that was perfectly OK with Britney Sanders, who captured her third Ojai singles title when her opponent, Kaitlyn Christian, retired after the first set of the girls’ 18s draw.

Sanders, a sophomore from Ontario Christian, won the girls’ 14s and 16s divisions the previous two years and raced to a 6-1 lead in the first set on Saturday afternoon at Libbey Park against an opponent who clearly was not at 100%.

“I feel bad that she wasn’t feeling well because she’s my friend and she’s a great player,” said Sanders, whose twin sister Nikki lost in the girls’ 16s finals just before Britney took the court. “I could see she wasn’t playing like herself and it was my job to take advantage of that.”

Christian, the No. 1-seeded player, warmed up in black sweats and never took them off despite the sweltering heat. Sitting down on the changeover after the first set she informed the chair umpire that she could not continue because of stomach pains. Sanders has now played Ojai three times and has won her division each time. When she won the 16s last spring, she beat her sister in the finals. This time they played different divisions hoping for a sibling sweep.

“This tournament has been going on for lots of years and I trained for a year at the Weil Academy so I’m very familiar with the surroundings,” Sanders said. “You have the crowd watching, you have ball boys, you have line judges … it’s a lot of fun.”

Sanders, who lives in Chino, is ranked behind Christian in the USTA junior rankings and had lost their last two head-to-head meetings but the third time was a charm.

In the girls’ 18s doubles final, top-seeded Danielle Kaiden and Paige Polizois of Corona del Mar outlasted Sea Queens teammates Karen Ishii and Kelli Feeley, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Kaiden and Polizois took a 3-0 lead in the second set tiebreaker and won it six points later. They led 5-4 in the decisive set before breaking Ishii to win the match and the championship.