Ojai Renews Itself

Change is a new watchword for the Ojai Valley tennis tournament, the way tradition has been in the past, and will remain, organizers insist, once the dust settles from recent renovation and revitalization efforts completed just in time for this year’s competition.

“The Ojai tournament is the Ojai tournament,” said Bob Jarboe, president of the Ojai Valley Tennis Club, the nonprofit group that organizes and runs the four-day event.

“All the stuff we’ve always done, we’re going to do this year too. I don’t think anybody’s going to be disappointed about anything, and I also don’t think anyone’s going to mistake us for the U.S. Open, because we’re not.”

The 103rd annual tournament runs today through Sunday at Libbey Park and other sites around western Ventura County.

Organizers hope an offer of prize money for the first time in the men’s and women’s open divisions, as well as the reconstruction of five of the eight courts at Libbey Park and the installation of high-performance lights on all of them in a six-month, $350,000 rebuilding project finished March 15, will help rejuvenate the aging tournament.

A total purse of $10,000 is to be split between the two open divisions in a manner still to be determined. The amount is not enough for U.S. Tennis Assn. sanctioning as an ATP or WTA event with corresponding Tour points value. But the money appears to have served its purpose of renewing interest in the event. The men’s open singles draw of 32 attracted more than 60 entrants, according to Anne Williamson, the tournament’s competition chair. There will be 14 players in the women’s open singles draw.

The open division reached a low point in 2001 when the men’s singles draw of 64 included 31 byes and the women’s bracket of 16 drew only 10 entrants. Things appeared to improve last year, but only because the men’s competition was reduced to its current 32-player draw size. A 16-player women’s draw went off with two byes.

“We really want the open division to stick around, and we had a need to get a little more interest built up,” Jarboe said. “It was one of the two beginning divisions [with interscholastic competition] in our tournament and we wanted to continue it.”

The Big West Conference championships, which had been played in conjunction with the Ojai tournament since 1989, will not be continued there after being bumped from the Ojai Valley Athletic Club by tournament officials in another effort aimed at bolstering the open divisions.

Open matches have been played at Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo and Los Posas Country Club in Somis in recent years, but are scheduled to be played this time at the Ojai Valley Inn, with Pacific 10 Conference women’s play at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club. The Big West was asked to go to Camarillo, but conference officials declined and will stage their tournament on the same dates in Danville.

*

Ojai Tournament

When: Today through Sunday; starting at 8 a.m. and running until about 6 p.m. each day.

Where: Division finals will be at Libbey Park in Ojai, the primary venue. Matches will be played at more than 125 courts in Ventura County, including some private courts at Ojai residences.

Who: About 1,500 players will compete in 32 divisions of open, age-group, high school and collegiate competition, including the Pacific-10 Conference individual championships and NCAA Division III West regional championships.

Tickets: $40 for a four-day pass; $25 for a two-day weekend pass. By the day, prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors aged 65, and children ages 5-12 on Thursday and Friday; on Saturday and Sunday, daily prices are $15 for adults and $10 for students, seniors and children.