THRILLING FIRST-ROUND COMEBACK HIGHLIGHTS OPENING DAY OF PACIFIC COAST MEN’S DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP AT LA JOLLA BEACH & TENNIS CLUB
Kelly Jones, Former No. 1 Doubles Player in the World, Scheduled to Play Friday at 8 a.m. La Jolla, Calif. – (February 28, 2013) – One of the beautiful aspects of the sport of tennis is that a match is never over until match point has been won. That was clearly evident in a first-round match on opening day at the 124th Annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club.
Playing on Court No. 1, unseeded Joe Dorn and Warren Wood of Claremont McKenna-Mudd-Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. faced seventh-seeded Brent Davis and Trent Miller, two veteran San Diego tennis teaching professionals. Using their experience, Davis and Miller captured the first set and quickly jumped out to a 5-0 second-set lead and appeared headed to quick straight set victory as they served for the match. At that point, Dorn a 20-year-old sophomore from Washington, D.C., and Wood, a 19-year-old sophomore from Del Mar, Calif. decided to play to win one game so they would not lose the set at love.
Picking up the intensity of their game and playing more aggressively, Dorn and Wood not only broke serve to stay in the match, they began to hit more freely and eventually forced the second set to a tiebreak. After the CMS duo captured the second set tiebreak, the match would be decided in a match tiebreak. Dorn and Wood capped a thrilling comeback as they ousted Davis and Miller, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 12-10. “They came out and played really strong at the beginning. We had a really slow start. I was struggling and at 5-0 I was kind of out of it,” Wood said. “We ended up breaking that game and we kept it rolling through the entire second set. The third-set tiebreaker really could have gone anybody’s way.” Dorn said being aggressive was the key to their victory. “To beat these guys, we had to match their intensity and pace, so we hit the ball harder and it worked. We came through at the end,” he said.
In other first-round tournament action on Thursday afternoon, Gustavo Gonzalez and Dylan Tozier of Rice University defeated Nick Hoyle and Michael Tang of the University of Southern California, 6-2, 6-3, and Charlie Alvarado and Carlos Di Laura of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, eliminated Alex Johnson and Oliver Seifert of Claremont McKenna-Mudd-Scripps College, 4-6, 6-1, 10-4
The tournament’s top-seeded collegiate team is Campbell Johnson and Christoffer Konigsfeldt of University of California, Berkeley. The top-seeded independent team is KC Corkery, who won the tournament in 2005 and Blake Muller of San Francisco. For the complete list of seeds and draws, go to:
http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=125266
Kelly Jones, a former San Diegan who was the number one ranked doubles player in the world in 1992 after reaching the doubles final at the Australian Open and US Open, will play his first-round match on
Friday at 8 a.m.
The 48-year-old Jones is the head men’s tennis coach at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. He will team with Peter Smith, head coach of University of Southern California men’s tennis team. They are seeded fifth and are scheduled to face Kelly Donaldson and Thomas O’Brien of Villanova University in their opening match.
This year’s Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship, which concludes on Sunday, features a draw with 128 doubles teams and includes 19 intercollegiate teams (please see full list below) and independent players such as teaching professionals, junior players, college coaches and former tour players.
The starting time for the final three days of the tournament will be as follows: Friday, March 1 – 8 a.m.; Saturday, March 2 – 9 a.m.; Sunday, March 3 – Semifinals at 9 a.m.; Championship Final will begin at approximately 1:30 p.m. (all times are PST).
La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club welcomes tennis spectators to view the tournament with free admission. On-site parking is available for a nominal fee.
Collegiate teams playing in the 2013 Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship:
Boston College
Claremont McKenna-Mudd-Scripps College (CMS)
Fresno State University (FSU)
Furman University
Oklahoma State University
Pepperdine University
Rice University
San Diego State University (SDSU)
Stanford University
University of California, Davis (UC Davis)
University of California, Berkeley (CAL)
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
University of Central Florida
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)
University of San Diego (USD)
University of Southern California (USC)
University of Toledo
Villanova University
Named “Club of the Year” for 2011 by the San Diego District Tennis Association and one of the “Top 50 Tennis Resorts in the World” by Tennis Resorts Online, the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club’s reputation as a top tennis destination started when it attracted its first major tournament – the Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship in 1942.
The Annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship is one of the five-oldest tennis events in the world and the second oldest tennis event in the United States. First held in 1890 at The Hotel Del Monte in Monterey, California, the event was created to promote the sale of real estate on the Monterey peninsula. The original concept pitted the best players from the East versus those from the West. This coast-to-coast rivalry was the inspiration for the Davis Cup. Past winners of the Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship include Jack Kramer, Ted Schroeder, Bobby Riggs, Pancho Segura, Don Budge, Tony Trabert, Stan Smith, Bob Lutz, Arthur Ashe, Dennis Ralston, John McEnroe, and many other world-class champions.
The Club will also be hosting the USTA National Hard Court Championships for Women’s 50-90 age groups and La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club Hard Court Tournament for Men’s 60-85 age groups on Monday, May 13, through Sunday, May 19.
Topics: 124th Annual Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championship, Dylan Tozier, Gustavo Gonzalez, Joe Dorn, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Warren Wood