TENNIS / OJAI TOURNAMENT : This Diverse Event Is a Showcase for the Future

The year was 1938 and the sound of playing cards slapping on a table mixed with occasional laughter wafted from a dimly lit hotel room in the small town of Ojai.

At one corner of the table sat 16-year-old Jack Kramer, deeply engrossed in a late-night game of poker with some friends.

They had gathered to while away the evening after competing in the Ojai Valley tennis tournament during the day.

No one knew then what an impressive tennis career awaited Kramer. They knew, however, that he was winning a lot of their money and they kept him playing late into the night in an attempt to win it back.

But Kramer didn’t know the time of his next match had been changed from 10 a.m. to 8 a.m. and the joke was on him when he lost to Arthur Marx, son of Groucho Marx, in the semifinals of the boys’ interscholastic division.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Arthur Marx,” Kramer said. “But I would have won that tournament if I hadn’t played cards all night.”

Things haven’t changed much at the Ojai tournament, which begins today and continues through Sunday. Young players still are encouraged to socialize in a relaxed atmosphere--citizens open their homes to board many of the more than 1,600 players that converge on the town to compete in the tournament’s 34 divisions.

The tournament includes the Pacific 10 and Big West Conference championships, independent and community college divisions, as well as interscholastic, junior and open divisions.

“It is probably the most unique event in the world for the diversification of people that are there,” said Kramer, 72, who returned to Ojai last year to help dedicate the tournament to Arthur Ashe.

What’s more, the 95-year-old tournament provides an early glimpse of future tennis stars. More than 25 Ojai champions have gone on to win Wimbledon, including Kramer, who won the 1937 and 1939 Ojai boys’ interscholastic singles titles for Montebello High and the 1942 Ojai men’s open singles and doubles titles before winning the 1946 and 1947 Wimbledon doubles and the 1947 Wimbledon singles titles.

This year, Geoff Abrams of Newport Harbor High is top-seeded in the boys’ interscholastic singles division and Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks is top-seeded in the girls’ 18-and-under singles division. Wayne Black of USC is top-seeded in the Pac-10 men’s singles division and Laxmi Poruri of Stanford is top-seeded in the Pac-10 women’s singles division.

Pac-10 men’s matches are played at Libbey Park, and the Pac-10 women are at the Ojai Valley Inn. Big West matches are at the Ojai Valley Racquet Club. Junior events are at Thacher School. Open matches are at lower Libbey Park courts as well as 30 private courts in Ojai. Semifinal and final matches are at Libbey Park on Saturday and Sunday.