Yaftali Fulfills Goal With a Sweet 16 Title

OJAI —  Nina Yaftali of Westlake Village pointed toward winning the girls’ 16 division of the Ojai tournament.

Her aim was true.

Yaftali defeated Jessica Siebel of Ross, 6-2, 7-5, in the final Saturday at Libbey Park.

Yaftali, 15, a sophomore at Westlake High who played for her school team as a freshman but not last fall, spent last season concentrating on improving her game, conditioning and junior-circuit play.

She dominated girls’ 14 competition in Southern California two years ago and was the No. 1 player at Westlake as a freshman, but she hadn’t had a breakthrough performance in 16s until Saturday.

“I love this tournament,” she said. “I just really wanted to gear up for this.”

Yaftali, using a powerful two-handed backhand, jumped to a 4-1 advantage in the first set against Siebel. In the second set, Yaftali rallied from a 3-2 deficit to take a 5-3 lead, lost it, and prevailed.

“I go to the end and I keep on trying,” Yaftali said. “I think that’s one of my best assets, my heart.”

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Happy Birthday, Lester.

Lester Cook of Sherman Oaks outlasted Aaron Yovan of Irvine, 6-4, 6-4, to win the boys’ 16-and-under division title at Libbey Park.

The victory capped a 16th-birthday celebration that began Friday night and included about 50 family members, friends and junior players who gathered in Ojai.

“This is a good birthday present,” Cook said after defeating Yovan.

The title was hard-earned, and came just in time.

Cook’s left thigh was beginning to cramp near the end of a tough second set. But Cook managed to win key points against the much-bigger Yovan with a slicing backhand volley and deep passing shots.

The title was particularly sweet for Cook because he is home-schooled and cannot compete in the Ojai boys’ high school division.

“This will probably be my last Ojai,” he said.

As an Ojai champion, Cook follows in the footsteps of his brother Jason, who attended Calabasas High and UCLA, and won the Pacific 10 Conference Invitational division title in 1998.

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In other results Saturday:

Mark Ellis, the NCAA Division III national champion at Cal Lutheran in 1996, advanced to the final of the men’s open division with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Andrew Cheney of Huntington Beach.

Ellis, runner-up in 1998, will play No. 2-seeded Peter Jeschke of Montecito for the title at 11 a.m. today.

Tracy Lin of Anaheim defeated Daron Moore of Oxnard, 6-0, 6-4, in the girls’ 14-and-under final.

K.C. Corkery and Kuba Gebel of Mira Costa High defeated Prakash Amritraj and David Frankel of Harvard-Westlake, 7-6, 6-1, in a boys’ high school doubles semifinal.

Dina Birch-McBride of Woodland Hills and Tracie Currie of Ventura defeated Lisa Seeman of Solvang and Kirsten Smith of Calabasas, 6-2, 6-4, in a women’s open semifinal. Birch and Currie will play Jennifer Lyons and Julie Shapiro of Dana Point at 2 p.m. today.

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Gene Mako hadn’t attended the Ojai tournament in 40 years, but it didn’t matter.

Libbey Park looked the same to him.

“I’ve been to Ojai, but not during the tournament,” said the 84-year-old Mako, who won six Ojai titles in the 1930s, including the high school singles championship while at Glendale in 1932. He later won U.S. Open and Wimbledon doubles titles, each with Don Budge.

“I came here for the first time in 1929, when I was 13,” he said. “This part of it all looks the same. It’s charming. This place is great.”

Mako, one of 80 former Ojai champions who also won at least one Grand Slam title, was back at Libbey Park on Friday as part of a 100-year anniversary celebration. He and 15 other former champions, including Lindsay Davenport, the No. 1 women’s player in the world, were honored at a banquet Saturday night at the Ojai Valley Inn.