Southland’s top tennis talent on display at Ojai tournament

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The 108th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament begins today/Thursday and the Boys’ CIF Division is filled with names you’ve been reading about all season. Without the No. 1 rated prep player in the nation, Harvard-Westlake’s Ryan Thacher (who will instead compete in the Men’s Open Singles), there’s no clear-cut favorite in the 64-player singles draw. That makes this spring’s event all the more intriguing.

Among those who figure to advance deep in the tournament are Kyle McMorrow of Thousand Oaks, Walker Kehrer of Brentwood, Ryan Agbayani of Mater Dei, Victor Chien of Diamond Bar, Daniel Nguyen of Santa Barbara, John Huang of Irvine University and Jenson Turner of Campbell Hall.

McMorrow and Lancers’ teammate Denis Lin won the 18s doubles title at the Easter Bowl on April 13. Kehrer has lost but one set all season -- a tiebreaker to Thacher. And perhaps no one is hotter than Turner, who pulled off a rare sweep Tuesday against Crossroads’ ranked threesome of Clay Thompson, Reese Milner and Alex Sohaili.

Peninsula’s Tyler Bowman and Jonathan Kazarian, Santa Barbara’s Andrew Grant and Billy Grokenberger, Brentwood’s Casey Grindon and Jackson Isaacs and University’s Ryan Cheung and Jason Lin should contend for the doubles crown. Bowman and Kazarian will face a strong test in their first match against Valencia’s Tyler Gottshall and Jack Zapala.

The team trophy goes to the school with the best combined results in singles and doubles. That could be University or Santa Barbara, the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked Division I programs, who agreed to cancel their scheduled nonleague showdown to rest up for The Ojai, the largest amateur tennis tournament in the United States.

First- and second-round matches are today/Thursday at Thacher and Ojai Valley Schools, third round and quarterfinal matches are Friday at Thacher and the semifinals and finals will be on Saturday at Libbey Park. Click here to see the brackets or here for the tournament schedule.

-- Steve Galluzzo