Tennis Doubles Tourney Scores a Nice Net for the Adoption Guild

Doubles, anyone?

When the Adoption Guild of Southern Orange County asks, tennis fans answer the call.

Doubled-up for competition last weekend, more than 1,100 local players and a sizable contingent of out-of-county residents stroked their way through the early rounds of the guild-sponsored 28th annual Doubles Tennis Tournament, a benefit for Holy Family Services Counseling and Adoption Agency in Santa Ana.

The tourney--proclaimed by its hosts the largest doubles competition in the country--drew players from as far away as Chicago and San Francisco for matches on the courts of seven local tennis clubs throughout Memorial Day weekend. (Finalists in the men’s, women’s and mixed-doubles divisions will battle for championship titles this weekend at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.)

To launch the fund-raiser, players and their families gathered Saturday at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club in Newport Beach for an early dinner of pizza, barbecue and beer.

Of course, for some, the launching party was more like a goodby kiss.

“We lost today,” sighed Dick Gude, standing on the crowded court-side terrace with his wife, Debbie, and infant son, Bryce.

The Corona del Mar resident said he and Geoff Martinez had made the men’s doubles finals for the past three years. “But today we got beaten by two little kids--two little kids who were very, very good.”

Admitting that the “little kids” were probably in their late teens, 36-year-old Gude laughed as he rubbed and stretched his sore lower back. “They showed us what it was like to be young and quick,” he said.

“We’re in mourning,” quipped Martinez, hoisting a plastic cup of beer.

Also mourning, or at least scowling, was Ken Kramer, who drove down from his home in Torrance and with doubles-partner Greg York lost in the first round. A tournament entrant for 16 years, Kramer described his first-round match as “terrible, terrible.”

Double the pressure, double the angst ?

“There is a lot of pressure in doubles,” said Michelle Manley, a UC Irvine student who said she and mixed doubles partner Randy McMichael were “thrilled” to beat their tough first-round draw (the fourth-seeded pair in their division).

Pulling together the organizational nightmare of 645 doubles teams playing matches at seven tennis clubs over two weekends-- whew! --were benefit co-chairwomen Nancy Popejoy and Nadine Draper. The $100-per-team entry fees raised estimated net proceeds of $60,000, according to Nicki Marx, president of the Guild.