Bellolis Earn Split Decision at Tournament

In a sense, Chris and Jeff Belloli entered the world as a team. They were born three minutes apart as fraternal twins. And after they conquered the junior tennis world in doubles, few expected to ever see the two on opposite sides of the net.

But that’s what happened in Friday’s opening round of the San Diego Intercollegiate Invitational. Chris, who plays for UC San Diego, and Jeff, who plays for San Diego State, opposed each other for the first time since the two decided to attend different colleges. In high school, they captured the CIF Southern Section doubles championship at Servite High in Anaheim.

The Bellolis, both juniors, now anchor the No. 1 doubles team of their respective schools. And in this strange encounter Jeff, the younger of the two, got the best of his “big” brother. Jeff Belloli and Dax Peterson, No. 1 seeds in the top draw of this 17-team tournament, defeated Chris Belloli and Chad Morse, 6-4, 6-3, on USD’s east courts.

But was it a fair fight? Chris Belloli and Morse, a former No. 1 singles player at La Jolla High, were playing their first match together for the Tritons. Chris Belloli has been slowed by bad hamstrings and a rotator cuff problem in his right shoulder. Jeff Belloli and Peterson, ranked No. 1 in ITCA’s Region 7, were playing their 15th match (their record is 12-3) and coming off a consolation loss in the National Collegiate Indoor Championships the week before.

“I thought we were going to kill them at first,” said Jeff, who helped break his brother’s serve at 5-4 in the first set and 5-3 in the second to win the match. “We’ve been doing real well and (Chris has) been injured.”

But Chris, a Division III All-American who reached the semifinals of the 1990 NCAA championships playing with Sig Huber, clicked with his new partner.

“We’re rusty,” Chris said. “They came in playing some of the top doubles teams in the country. But we were playing real well and they realized it.”

The tournament, which runs through Sunday and is being played at USD and SDSU, is divided into three draws (1-2, 3-4, 5-6 singles and 1, 2, 3 doubles) for the top, middle and bottom players of the competing teams. All four of the Aztec doubles teams, three of which are top seeds, won and moved into today’s second round, which starts at 2 p.m.

In singles, top-seeded Jose Luis Noriega of the University of San Diego easily advanced through the first two rounds in the top draw and is set to face Joe McDonough of SDSU in today’s third round at USD at 9:30 a.m. Noriega defeated UCSD’s Morse, 6-1, 6-1, in the opener then dispensed of Irvine’s Jon Parker, 6-0, 6-1.

McDonough, a junior, breezed past Kari Karkkainen of Cal State Bakersfield, 7-5, 6-1, and Mark Willman, Hawaii’s No. 1 singles player, 6-2, 6-2. Unseeded Michael Sass of SDSU knocked off fifth-seeded Fredrik Axsater of USD, 6-3, 7-6, to also advance to the third round in the No. 1 draw. Four of six Aztec singles players advanced, but their best player, Ricardo Herrera, did not.

Herrera, seeded second in the top flight, was surprised by unseeded Frank Ofori of California Baptist, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, in a three-hour second-round match. Ofori may have been unknown but his victory over Herrera, who has beaten three top-20 players this season, was not a fluke. Ofori has played in three Davis Cups for Ghana, this year at No. 1 singles.