La Jolla’s Elsberry Gets Some Revenge in Final

For the third time in as many tries, Jon Elsberry proved himself on the court but failed to win much admiration from his opponent.

In defeat, University City’s Joe Barbarie was hardly gracious after the singles final of the San Diego Section boys’ individual tennis championships Friday afternoon at Rancho Arbolitos.

Aside from acknowledging that Elsberry had a booming serve, Barbarie blamed himself rather then compliment Elsberry.

“This was a disaster,” Barbarie said after Elsberry took the section title with a 6-3, 7-5 victory. “I don’t think I should have lost.”

The singles title was a mixed bag of revenge for the La Jolla senior. It avenged his loss in the section doubles championship two years ago and his loss in the singles semifinals last year. His victory also was a form of revenge for teammate James Conda, whom Barbarie beat on Thursday.

“Yeah, I wanted revenge,” Elsberry said. “I feel James is a better player and I wanted to beat him. . . . I really wanted to meet James, I would have been relaxed. Then when Joe beat him, I had to get more pumped up, more of a tournament mode, more like kill. “

La Jolla won its sixth consecutive team title here last week and teammates Simon Shen and Eric Wang, both underclassmen, won the doubles title with a 6-3, 6-2 intramural victory against Brett Johnson and Carl Adams.

“I kind of wanted to win it for the team, since we won CIF,” Elsberry said.

Elsberry, who said he was so nervous before the match it took him three warm ups to calm down, relied on his serve. Instead of coming in behind that big serve, he hit successfully from the baseline more than usual.

“My serve was going well,” he said. “It would have made a difference if my first serve wasn’t strong.”

Barbarie couldn’t counter Elsberry’s shots during much of the first set but found some shots that worked from midcourt and at the net in the second. Both players held serve until Elsberry broke Barbarie for a 5-4 lead, which Barbarie immediately answered. He broke back to make it 5-5.

“I felt really confident at 5-5. I felt like I was the one on a roll. Then I couldn’t get back in the play,” Barbarie said.

With assorted winners, Elsberry closed it out with a big serve and cross-court volley to win the final game.

Elsberry seemed a bit amused that he’s now 3-0 against his City Western League opponent.

“He thinks he should beat me all the time, and I’ve beaten him three times this year,” Elsberry said. “I guess it’s a rivalry. I think he takes it a little more seriously.”