Kaplan, Man Son Hing Win Title With Upset

Mark Kaplan and Bruce Man Son Hing upset top-seeded Tim Pawsat and Adam Peterson in the open men’s doubles division final of the Adoption Guild tennis tournament Sunday at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.

Kaplan and Man Son Hing, both UC Irvine graduates, breezed through the first set and lumbered through the second, defeating Pawsat and Peterson, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).

Peterson, this year’s Pacific 10 champion from USC, and Pawsat, a four-time All-American at USC and the obvious crowd favorite, struggled from the onset. Man Son Hing and Kaplan gave up only three points in the first three games, breaking Peterson and Pawsat twice to go up 3-0.

“We started out really strong in the first set and that continued into the next set,” Man Son Hing said. “But [Kaplan] got tight. He hasn’t played in over a year and a half. We should have served [the match] out at 40-15.”

In the second set, Kaplan and Man Son Hing broke Pawsat and Peterson to go up 4-3. But Pawsat and Peterson battled back to tie the set, 6-6, and turned away three match points.

Peterson and Pawsat appeared to be on the verge of a comeback to tie the set 2-2, when they took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but Kaplan and Man Son Hing battled back to take the 8-6 victory.

“It was really sort of easy,” said Kaplan, a native South African who is a teacher at the Woodbridge Junior Tennis Academy in Irvine. “We were down in the second, but we hung in there. Overall, we were sharp at the net and I think we were pretty much dominating.”

Pawsat was upset again in mixed doubles, with partner Jolene Watanabe, when Kathy May Fritz and Jim Pugh defeated the top-seeded team, 6-2, 6-2.

The Adoption Guild tennis tournament was established 35 years ago by Charles Eaton. The group of 50 women from South Orange County donate all proceeds from the tournament to Holy Family Services, a Santa Ana-based nonprofit organization.