San Diego District players took home gold balls in the Mother/Son, Senior Father Daughter and 80+ Father/Daughter Hard Courts held at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego June 1-3.
The Open Father/Daughter title was the only one that didn’t go, at least in part, to Californians. Unseeded, Whitney and Tim Ritchie sailed past the 3 and 2 seeds before beating Lauren JOnes/Michael Megale, who took out the top seeds and the 5th seeds in three sets. The Ritchies won the final 62 61, and didn’t drop a set all week. Manuel and Jazmin Ortiz had match points in a fiercely contested semi against Jones/Megale, falling 76 67 64. Becky and Jerry Morse/Karzen placed third.
Bill Kellogg and Tiffany Kellogg of La Jolla won their first gold ball in the Senior Father/Daughter division. Seeded second, they won the final in three sets over third seeded Ashley and David Martin, to finish one spot higher than last year. The Martins upset the top seeds, Al and Marianne Baker, in the semis. The Bakers beat the 4th seeded Rettenmaiers to place third. Bill Kellogg already had an outstanding performance in the ITF World Championships earlier in the year, earning a silver medal in the men’s 55 doubles. Tiffany was out practicing hard each evening and it paid off!
Carolyn Barber MD (an emergency room physician) and her son Jack, 15, seeded 4th (La Jolla, CA), beat the #1 seeds, Cherise and Luke Meioli in the semis and the #3 seeds, the Carolyn Dadiian-Bernhardt and Cameron Bernhardt, of San Diego, in three sets to win their first gold balls. In the semis, the Meiolis were playing Lisa Namu/Seeman and the match was just underway at 1/2 when Namu, a recent titlist at the Women’s 50 Hard Court nationals in doubles, snapped her Achilles tendon. We all wish her a speedy recovery.
Herm Ahlers, Las Vegas, and Krista O’Connor, San Clemente, CA, won their second straight Super Senior Father/Daughter Hard Court title. They beat Alissa (Santa Monica) and Ralph Finerman (Pacific Palasides, CA), who were unseeded. The Finermans beat the #3 and #1 seeds en route to the final. Alissa won the ITF World Championships in 45 doubles in February; Ahlers won three of the four men’s 75 singles titles in 2011 and was a member of the winning men’s 75 Cup team in Turkey last fall.
Carolyn Nichols, Rancho Santa Fe, and Graydon Nichols, Hanford, won the 80+ Father/Daughter Hard Courts for the fifth straight year. They dominated the round robin competition, dropping only four games in as many matches. (My dad played great…they hit him the ball and he hit winners…I ran around back in the outfield snagging lobs!)