County Players Hoping to Court Fame at Ojai

University High’s Aaron Yovan was nervous enough about his first appearance at the famed Libbey Park courts in Ojai. It’s just as well he didn’t know that tennis greats Arthur Ashe, Jack Kramer, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Billie Jean King had played at Libbey Park.

“When I first walked in there, I saw all these people, all these ball boys and an umpire sitting in a chair,” Yovan said. “I was thinking, ‘I hope I don’t play here.’ ”

Yovan somehow survived the stage fright and wound up winning the boys’ 14 singles title in 1998 over Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Rylan Rizza. This year’s Ojai, which begins Thursday morning, is Yovan’s fifth and the tournament’s 100th.

This year is also Audra Adams’ first and probably last Ojai. Adams, a senior at Newport Harbor, is still learning about the Ojai tournament’s prestige.

“When Brian Morton [of Corona del Mar High] came home and told me he won Ojai, I said, ‘Good job,’ ” Adams said. “He said, ‘I don’t think you understand, I won Ojai.’ Maybe once I get up there I’ll know what it means to win Ojai.”

It isn’t that Adams hasn’t wanted to play Ojai. It’s just that she’s never been invited.

“The main reason I’ve never played is, I wasn’t good enough,” she said. “And I never thought to make the trip to watch anyone else.”

Adams is not only good enough to play Ojai this year, she might be good enough to win it. Primarily a doubles specialist until last year, Adams has turned into one of the top 20 girls’ 18 players in Southern California.

She will have plenty of competition from Orange County in the girls’ 18 singles division. Also entered are Caylan Leslie and Brittany Reitz of Corona del Mar, Kim Nguyen of Saddleback, Arpi Kojian of Villa Park, Kate Romm of Dana Hills and Amber Tantee of Dana Point.

In recent years, some of the top seniors who had signed letters of intent dodged the singles division so they could play doubles with their friends. But this year, most of the high-ranked seniors are playing singles.

“I’m not going up there to have fun,” said Adams, who has signed with Mississippi. “I’m going to work on my game and I’m going to play the best I can. I’m trying to work on the mental part of my game, like closing out matches when I have a lead.”

Yovan also has plenty of competition. In fact, his draw in the boys’ 16 division might be one of the toughest in the entire tournament. The top-seeded player figures to be Doug Stewart of Malibu, who was seeded first in last week’s Easter Bowl National Junior Championships in Palm Springs. Other top-ranked players include Morton, Matt Loucks of Irvine, Patrick Buchanan of Servite, Brett Van Linge of Woodbridge, Garrett Snyder of Santa Margarita, Kevin McQuaid of Los Alamitos and Chris Surapol of Whittier.

Even if Yovan doesn’t win the boys’ 16s, he will have the satisfaction of knowing that his picture will be on a wall in the entrance to Libbey Park, alongside other Orange County boys’ 14 Ojai champions such as Jon Leach, Geoff Abrams, Ryan Moore, Taylor Dent and Brian Morton.

MORE OJAI-LIGHTS

The girls’ 16 division features some of the county’s most promising junior players--Woodbridge’s Elizabeth Exon, Laguna Beach’s Ashley Maddocks, Dana Hills’ Kady Pooler and Chelsy Thompson, Corona del Mar’s Kim Singer and Anne Yelsey, Cypress’ Samantha Waller and Orange eighth-grader Lindsey Nelson.

WHERE THE BOYS AREN’T

The boys’ interscholastic singles, the oldest and most prestigious division for junior players at Ojai, is not loaded with county players. Joseph Kao of Sunny Hills, Michael Nguyen of Capistrano Valley and Cameron Ball of Corona del Mar are the highest-ranked local players in the draw.

All junior finals will be held on Saturday at Libbey Park. The Pac-10, Big West and community college finals are scheduled for Sunday.

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