Top Players Converge on Ojai

More than 1,600 players in 38 divisions begin play today in the 99th Ojai tennis tournament, the oldest amateur tennis event in the United States.

Three county players are seeded in the boys’ interscholastic singles, the featured event in the junior division: Dana Hills’ Brian Kent, Woodbridge’s David Lingman and Corona del Mar’s Parker Collins. Kent has the toughest draw of the three. He would meet Los Alamitos’ Cody Jackson today in the second round. The top-seeded player is Artin Tafazoli of Palisades.

In interscholastic doubles, the top county teams are Dana Hills’ John Lippert and Javier Carrillo, Corona del Mar’s Christian Jensen and Sameer Chopra and Sunny Hills’ Davin Lin and Raj Vyas. The top-seeded team is Tony Congdon and Ryan Haymond of Bakersfield Central.

Other highly seeded county players are Corona del Mar’s Caylan Leslie and Nadia Vaughan and Newport Harbor’s Natalie Braverman in the girls’ 18s, the Dana Hills team of Kate Romm and Amy Tranckino in the girls’ 18 doubles, Dana Point’s Amberly Tantee, Laguna Beach’s Ashley Maddocks and Saddleback’s Kim Nguyen in the girls’ 16s, Sunny Hills’ Joseph Kao in the boys’ 16s and Corona del Mar’s Hunter Jack and Brian Morton in the boys’ 16 doubles.

The Pacific 10, Big West and Division III west regional championships also begin today along with the community college tournament. The junior divisions conclude Saturday and the college divisions finish Sunday.