Moore Knows Ojai Tournament Is Chance to Shine

Servite junior Ryan Moore missed last year’s Ojai tournament because he was sick with the flu. But the field in the Ojai boys’ interscholastic singles event, which begins Thursday, won’t be as lucky this year.

Moore is healthy and has been playing some of his best tennis.

“I think I have a good chance of winning,” Moore said.

He is coming off a quarterfinal appearance in the Easter Bowl junior championships, a prestigious national tournament in Miami. Moore lost in the boys’ 18 division to Newport Beach’s Taylor Dent, the nation’s best 16-year-old last season.

“I’ve been hot,” Moore said. “I’m going to try and keep things going.”

Moore knows the fall signing date is only seven months away and he also realizes the Pac-10 Championships are held in Ojai at Libbey Park.

“I’ll be trying to impress the coaches,” Moore said. “It’s a big year for me.”

Moore has a history of playing well at Ojai. In 1993, he won the boys’ 14 title, beating Zachary Fleishman of Playa del Ray in the finals.

“That was one of the best matches I’ve ever played,” Moore said.

Moore’s main competition will include San Marino’s Andrew Park, Santa Barbara’s Sam Adam Webster, who recently signed with Boise State, and Beverly Hills’ Jose Lieberman. Other top Orange County players are Joost Hol of Foothill, Chris Chung of Sunny Hills, Aaron Talarico of Laguna Beach, Brandon Fallon of Dana Hills, Adam Artunian of Woodbridge, Eric Bachelor of Mission Viejo, B.K. Chang of Villa Park and Jon Cappello of Corona del Mar.

The most notable players missing from this year’s field are Dent, who won the boys’ 16 national hard courts last year but is currently playing in Europe, and Chase Exon, who is attending Woodbridge but is not playing high school tennis this year.

The boys’ interscholastic doubles draw is deep in talent. Many top singles players enter the doubles tournament because each school can enter only one player in the interscholastic singles draw. The top true doubles team from Orange County is from Woodbridge: juniors Brandon Shainfeld and Greg Levy, who reached the Southern Section Individual quarterfinals last year.

Three of Southern California’s top 10 girls’ 18 players--Villa Park’s Faye DeVera, San Diego’s Kari Olsen and Los Angeles’ Ilona Kordanskaya--will compete in the girls’ 18 division. Other top county players are Woodbridge’s Natalie Exon, Huntington Beach’s Allison Arvizu, Irvine’s Sarah Denson, Newport Harbor’s Vanessa Godbey and Dana Hills’ Lara Spica.

All junior divisions begin play Thursday morning at various sites around Ojai and will finish Saturday at Libbey Park. The Pac-10 men’s and women’s championships and Big West women’s tournament will run Thursday through Sunday.