Grinda, Irvin Capture Tennis Bragging Rights

When the great college rivalries of USC-UCLA and Stanford-California are spoken of, tennis isn’t exactly the first sport to come to mind.

But the rivalries weren’t lost on the participants Sunday in the men’s and women’s finals of the National Collegiate Tennis Classic at Sherwood Country Club, the first major invitational of the season.

Jean-Noel Grinda of UCLA took only one hour and 15 minutes to dismiss Roman Kukai of USC in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to claim the men’s title before top-seeded Marissa Irvin of Stanford overcame a sluggish start to defeat Anita Kurimay of California, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Grinda, seeded No. 4 and a native of Nice, France, who upset top-seeded Ryan Woltersof Stanford in three sets in Saturday’s semifinal, used a booming serve and big forehand to dominate Kukai.

“I’d say he’s pro level in both those shots, which makes him very dangerous,” UCLA Coach Billy Martin said. “Now he’s working on the rest of his game.”

With such a dominating serve, the left-hander needed little else against an overmatched Kukai. Grinda, whose father Jean-Noel Sr. played for France in the Davis Cup from 1958-64, lost only two points in five service games in the first set and finished the match with eight aces and 14 service winners in 10 service games.

Irvin, a freshman who won a Southern Section singles title last year at Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood in her only season of high school tennis, played erratic in the first set against Kurimay.

Irvin settled down in the second set, regained her confidence with her serve to claim a 4-1 lead and held serve to win, 6-2.

The third set was all Irvin, who broke Kurimay twice to go up, 5-0.

“I just didn’t feel like I was playing well,” Irvin said.

Perhaps it had something to do with the sour taste in her mouth: Irvin and partner Teryn Ashley squandered a 5-1 lead in the doubles final and lost, 8-6, to Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen of Cal.

In the men’s doubles final, second-seeded K.J. Hippensteel and Wolters of Stanford defeated Ryan Moore and Nick Rainey of USC, 8-6.