Ruckert Is Proof of Tradition

Much is made of the tradition of the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament. Watching Walter Ruckert’s eyes sparkle as he recalls playing here in 1931 brings the tradition to life.

Ruckert, 80, won the 15-and-under doubles championship with Henry Moon when both were sophomores at Santa Monica High. Four players made the three-hour drive to Ojai in the same car, each with $5 in his pocket to cover the entry fee, gas and hotel room.

“It was an adventure,” said Ruckert, who recalls pilfering oranges from nearby orchards between matches. “It was a long drive back then. Ojai was very rustic and the people were very nice. In that respect, nothing has changed.”

Rain delayed play for two days, and players wiped water off the courts to get in their matches. Although underdogs, Ruckert and Moon won their division.

“We were the darkhorses, the unknowns,” said Ruckert, who lives in Camarillo.

Ruckert played in the tournament three more times in the 1930s. He owns a racket stringing service and still competes in seniors tournaments--including today at Ojai Valley Country Club.

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If Ventura High junior Erin Carroll keeps going the way he has, he’ll become one of the more notable juniors to play at the tournament.

Carroll and Ventura senior Joe Chrisman captured the boys’ interscholastic doubles championship at Libbey Park on Saturday afternoon.

They overwhelmed Sergey Kordonskey and Danny Westerman of Palisades, 6-2, 6-1, in the final.

Carroll became the first junior to win both a singles and doubles title at Ojai. Last year, he became the first player from Ventura County to win the boys’ 16 singles.

The final was anticlimactic compared to their semifinal match, easily the toughest of the tournament. Carroll and Chrisman outlasted Tony Congdon and Mark Windes of Bakersfield Centennial, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, to earn a three-way tie for the Griggs Cup, which goes to the top high school.

“We’ve never won the Griggs Cup before at Ventura,” Chrisman said. “It means a lot.”

Ventura, one of the oldest schools in the county, tied with Palisades and Fresno Bullard for top honors.

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Darian Chappell of Camarillo and Stanford’s Ania Bleszynski, a Thousand Oaks resident, were less fortunate in their doubles matches.

Chappell and Jonni Seymour of Bakersfield, seeded No. 1 in the girls’ 18, were upset by Julie Chidley and Sarita Yardi of Riverside, 6-4, 6-3, in the final.

Bleszynski and Julie Scott, ranked No. 2 in the nation, were stopped by UCLA’s Katia Roubanova and Elizabeth Schmidt, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Pacific 10 Conference doubles championships.

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Stephen Amritraj of Calabasas and Jieun Jacobs of Valencia each made a run at what would have been big victories.

Amritraj fell to top-seeded Drew Hoskins of Los Alamitos, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5, in the semifinals of the boys’ 14 singles. Amritraj, 13, is still looking for his first breakthrough victory.

Jacobs, the reigning Southern California girls’ 14 singles champion, has made the jump to 16s. But she was cut down by Jennifer Baker of La Quinta, 6-3, 7-5, in the semifinals.

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It will be an all-Cal Lutheran showdown for the men’s singles championship in the Division III Regional Invitational.

Top-seeded Mark Ellis, the defending national champion, will face fourth-seeded Jenia Karimov, who plays No. 2 singles for the Kingsmen behind Ellis.

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Arizona sophomore and former Camarillo High standout Monique Allegre has reached the Pac-10 Women’s Invitational doubles final with Betsy Miringoff. They will face Zeta Wagner and Peggy Wu of Washington in the 12:30 p.m. final.