Ojai Tennis : Leach Defeats Zuniga, 6-2, 6-1 in Final

There was little question in USC Coach Dick Leach’s mind about the quality of one player in the 16-and-under division final on Sunday at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament.

It didn’t hurt that the singles champion turned out to be Leach’s 15-year-old son, Jonathan, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Marco Zuniga of San Diego.

Leach didn’t lose a set and only gave up 14 games in five matches. The Laguna Beach High School sophomore, who turned 15 a week ago, is also undefeated at 42-0 for the Artists.

“I’ve never seen him play like this,” Dick Leach said. “He played unbelievably well. He’s a lot stronger than Ricky was at the same age.”

Rick Leach, Jonathan’s older brother, was a two-time NCAA doubles champion for the Trojans and turned professional last year. In January, he won the Australian Open doubles title with Jim Pugh.

Last year, Jonathan won the 14-and-under at Ojai in straight sets. This time, Leach had an even easier match as he served extremely well against Zuniga.

Leach was asked what he did differently with his serve on Sunday.

“I was trying to hit it harder,” he said, laughing.

Another player from Laguna Beach, Graham Gilles, won the 14-and-under title as he defeated Adam Peterson of Orange. Gilles, who lives down the street from Leach, dropped the first set before winning, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Two other players from Orange County lost in the junior singles competition Sunday. Kimberly Chang of El Toro lost to eventual champion Heather Willens of Los Angeles, 6-3, 6-1, in the semifinals. And Danielle Scott of Corona del Mar High School lost to Kimberly Po of Rolling Hills, 6-3, 6-4, in the 18-and-under final.

Chapman College’s Miles Walker defended his men’s independent collegiate singles title with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Jeff Greenwald of UC Santa Barbara. Walker, who also needed to go three sets in his semifinal match on Saturday, had lost to Greenwald earlier this season.

Two doubles teams from UC Irvine also won championships. Trevor Kronemann and Mike Briggs defeated Mike Guisto and Neal Berryman of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2, in the independent collegiate division, and Dina Trenwith and Haruko Shigekawa defeated Tamara Agassi and Anna Castaneda of Nevada Las Vegas, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, in the collegiate invitational division. The tiebreaker scores were 7-2 in the first set and 7-5 in the second.

Saddleback College’s Doubles team of Craig O’Shannessy and Russ Decker won the community college doubles division as Saddleback won the team championship with 15 points. Grossmont was second with 13 points, and Long Beach and West Valley tied for third with 12.

O’Shannessy and Decker defeated Fernando Molina and John Tormey of Long Beach, 7-6, 6-4, for the championship.

Mark Hansen of Saddleback was defeated by David Fontaine of Long Beach, 7-6, 1-6, 1-6, the semifinals of singles and Ed Peregino of Saddleback was defeated by Ron Beijer of West Valley, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, in a quarterfinal-round match.

Jeff and Chris Belloli, twin brothers from Servite High School, won Interscholastic boys’ doubles division. They defeated Gabriel Pate and Randy Ivey of Woodbridge High School, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the final.