Winning Keeps Abrams Occupied

Maybe Geoff Abrams should consider moving up here.

He won his fourth and fifth Ojai titles Sunday in the span of four hours, winning the Pac-10 men’s invitational singles championship over Stanford teammate, Charles Hoeveler, 6-4, 6-4, and taking the Pac-10 men’s invitational doubles title by teaming with Elliott Abrams to beat USC’s Fernando Samayoa and Akram Zaman, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

“I love this place,” Abrams said after finishing off Hoeveler in a little more than an hour.

It’s easy to see why. Abrams, who graduated from Newport Harbor High last year, also has won singles titles in the boys’ 14s, boys’ 16s and interscholastic divisions. He’s lost only twice in six years of playing the Ojai Valley tennis tournament.

“I just think it’s really nice when a little town has a tournament and everyone supports it,” Abrams said. “The atmosphere is great. You can’t duplicate it. I think half the town comes out for this.”

Abrams never was in trouble against Hoeveler. He served well throughout and used his 6-foot-4 frame at the net to pick off Hoeveler’s passing shots. About the only hiccup Abrams had came in the second set, at 3-3, when he was called for a foot fault. He proceeded to double fault by shanking his next serve into the net. Hoeveler broke Abrams, but he broke back and won the next two games to finish off Hoeveler.

Abrams was pleased with his Ojai title but he tried not to show it in front of Hoeveler, a junior who plays No. 6 singles. Abrams is fourth on the Stanford singles ladder.

“I don’t want to seem too excited,” Abrams said. “I tried to stay calm and mellow because he’s my teammate. The umpire even asked me afterward if I was OK because he thought I was sick or something.”

Abrams and his Stanford teammates appear to be ready for the NCAA team championships at UCLA, which begin May 17. The Cardinal dominated the Pac-10 men’s events. Bob Bryan won the Pac-10 men’s title over Stanford’s Ryan Wolters, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and Wolters and Paul Goldstein won the doubles championship over UCLA’s Eric Taino and Alex Decret, 6-2, 6-1.

Stanford took the Thacher Cup, awarded to the team that compiles the most singles and doubles match victories, 18 to 13 over UCLA.

“Ojai’s a confidence booster,” Abrams said. “But in the NCAAs anything can happen. Look what Arizona did in basketball. They beat three No. 1 seeds.”

In the Pac-10 women’s singles final, Stanford’s Julie Scott defeated Arizona’s Vicky Maes, 6-2, 6-3. California’s Amanda Augustus and Claire Curran won the doubles title over UCLA’s Katia Roubanova and Elizabeth Schmidt, 7-5, 6-2.

Stanford also took the Thacher Cup women’s trophy, 15-10, over Arizona.

Loyola Marymount’s Mara Colaizzi, who graduated from Newport Harbor, went 1-1 in her title matches. She lost the women’s independent singles title to Barbara Valkova of Cal State Bakersfield, 6-2, 6-3, but won the doubles championship with Anna Zaricki by beating Ilyse Ball and Alisa Yee, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

In the women’s open doubles final, Jennifer and Julie Slattery of Dana Point lost to Dina Birch and Kirstin Smith, 6-3, 6-7, 3-0, when Jennifer Slattery turned her ankle and had to retire. Slattery was put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital by ambulance.

UC Irvine’s Steve Tallakson and Thomas Bohun lost a heartbreaker to UC Santa Barbara’s Ross Duncan and Min Jong Min, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3). Bohun and Tallakson each had a double fault in the tiebreaker. Tallakson’s ended the match.

Tallakson and Bohun probably will see Duncan and Min again this week in Las Cruces, N.M., in the Big West Conference tournament.

“They’ve beaten these guys before,” UC Irvine Coach Steve Clark said. “To beat them again, we can’t double fault on big points and we have to return better.”

Tallakson is from nearby Oak View but comfortable surroundings weren’t enough of an advantage.

“Steve played well,” Clark said. “He brought them back by coming up with some big shots. I know he wanted to win this pretty badly.”