Nelsons Are Happy Family : Tennis: Third-place finish is just fine for father-son doubles team.

There wasn’t anything Irvine’s Jim Nelson would rather be doing on Father’s Day than playing tennis with his son Brian at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.

The two paired up in the National Senior Father and Son Hardcourt Doubles championships Sunday and took third place with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over eighth-seeded Jim and Jim Settles from Laguna Niguel and Glendale.

“It’s a very special event for Father’s Day,” said Jim Nelson, 60, who recently won the ITF World Veteran Singles and doubles championships in Nottingham, England. “Everyone’s family is here and it’s a time when fathers get to do something they really enjoy with their sons.”

The Nelsons--Brian is 30--were seeded second in the tournament, but were upset in the semifinals by the eventual champions, Bill and Kurt Streng of Michigan, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

The third-seeded Strengs, finalists in the first father-son tournament of 1995, at the Cincinnati indoors in May, upset top-seeded Spencer and John Letts of Rolling Hills and Chicago in the championship match, 6-3, 6-2.

The tournament, in its first year as a national event sponsored by the U.S. Tennis Assn., drew more than 60 participants, the oldest being 70-year-old Pete Welsh of Claremont.

Newport Beach’s Gary Davidson, 60, founder of the World Football League, World Hockey Assn. and the American Basketball Assn., helped organize this year’s tournament and participated with his son Peter, 31, from Irvine. The two were defeated, 6-1, 6-2, in the second round by Norman and James Slaught of Pasadena and Glendale.

“This is a great event,” Davidson said. “It’s a very family-oriented event. And we have some great talent from around the country this year. It’s a great way for everyone to spend Father’s Day.”