Bjorn again Ojai runner-up
OJAI — Corona del Mar High senior Bjorn Hoffmann was grinding Saturday afternoon, doing everything in his power to hold his serve early in the first set against Peninsula’s Connor Hance.
Hoffmann saved two break points, then three. On the fifth deuce point of the game, a bunch of guys in blue and gold uniforms sat down to watch the match on court No. 1 at Libbey Park.
They were Hoffmann’s future teammates on the Cal men’s tennis team, getting ready for Saturday night’s Pac-12 Championship match against UCLA. First, they came by to cheer on the Cal signee.
“I really appreciate that,” Hoffmann said after the match. “I wish I could have won some of those long games that they were there for, but that definitely gave me a little bit of a push to do my best.”
The problem for Hoffmann was that the future Golden Bear ran into a player who CdM Coach Jamie Gresh called a “bulldog” after the match.
No. 2-seeded Hance was just too solid. He beat Hoffmann, 6-2, 6-2 in the CIF singles division title match of the 116th annual Ojai Tennis Tournament. It was Hoffmann’s second straight finals loss at the prestigious tournament, after falling last year to Harvard-Westlake’s Michael Genender.
The other local junior player in the finals was Newport Beach’s Max McKennon. McKennon, the top seed in the boys’ 14s, lost to No. 3-seeded Ali Amiri of Santa Ana, 6-3, 6-3 in the title match.
Newport Beach’s Mackenzie Worsnop lost in the girls’ 18 singles semifinals Saturday morning to Tatum Berger of Steamboat Springs, Colo., 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Hoffmann had rallied to beat Billy Rowe of Coronado, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the CIF singles semifinals Saturday morning at Libbey Park South. But he ran into a buzz saw in Hance, who was in nearly every Hoffmann service game, somewhat unusual for the CdM player with the big serve and big forehand.
The players traded service breaks in the beginning of the match, but Hance broke Hoffmann’s serve twice more as the set went on. In the game which featured the arrival of the Cal players, Hance earned the break after the fifth deuce, as Hoffmann buried a forehand into the net.
Serving at 2-4, Hoffmann had a seemingly secure lead at 40-15. But after three straight double faults, Hance had a break point. Hoffmann saved the first one but not the second, as Hance took a double-break lead. He was then able to serve out the set.
“I thought I served a lot better in my other matches,” Hoffmann said. “He returns really well, and I felt like maybe I needed to go for a little bit more on serve to get free points. And I didn’t get a lot of those … He did win a lot of the big points. He wasn’t blasting me off the court, but he was just super-solid and didn’t really miss anything. I would have had to win the match, and I didn’t execute as well as I could have.”
At deuce in the third game of the second set, a pair of unforced errors from Hoffmann gave Hance another break, and he broke again in Hoffmann’s next service game. Serving for the match at 5-2, Hance took any suspense out of the occasion, holding at love.
“He came up with some passing shots and some defensive plays, and that’s kind of Connor’s forte,” CdM Coach Jamie Gresh said. “He takes a lot of pace off the ball, so you have to supply a lot of energy and pace to the ball, which is a tough proposition point and point again … It’s a little bit of a tricky matchup. He just knows where the ball is going and is a step ahead.
“Bjorn needed to serve really well today. Bjorn served great against Brumm and great against Billy, and almost just ran out of clutch serving today in the final.”
Hance, who has been playing in The Ojai for years, said he was happy to win it for the first time. He also helped Peninsula share the Griggs Cup trophy, awarded to the high school team that earns the most combined CIF singles and doubles division victories, with San Marino.
Hance said he was so sick that he couldn’t get out of bed on Sunday, and missed two days of practice leading up to the tournament. But he cruised through the draw, never dropping a set and winning every set by at least a 6-3 score. However, he said the final match against Hoffmann was definitely closer than the score indicated.
“It’s always tough,” Hance said. “Bjorn’s tough. His forehand’s really good, and his serve’s really good too … I won some big points that I needed. Some of my shots weren’t totally on, but I made up for it with having a lot of energy and bouncing around and stuff. “
Hoffmann still felt proud of making his second straight CIF singles final, especially considering his tough draw. He beat top-seeded Jacob Brumm of Torrey Pines in the quarterfinals on Friday.
He ended up with his second Ojai medal, matching his dad, Carsten, who won the Ojai men’s open doubles title match with partner Art Hernandez in 2001 and again made the finals with Hernandez in 2002.
“There are so many more positives from the weekend than the one negative of him losing the final,” Gresh said. “Connor’s a first-class player. For Bjorn to beat Brumm and Billy Rowe back to back, he’s playing some great tennis. Obviously when you lose twice in a row in the final, you always think about what could be. It’s like a team that makes the Super Bowl twice and they lose. People remember that, but I think getting here is a massive accomplishment for Bjorn. He had a tough draw, and he played some great tennis and he just ran into a bulldog.”
Hoffmann said he would consider the tournament a success as well.
“With kind of a bad draw and the deck stacked against me a little bit, having to go through three of the top players instead of two or maybe even one … I’m pretty proud of myself,” he said.
McKennon, meanwhile, ran into a familiar face. He trains at Irvine’s Advantage Tennis Academy with Amiri. McKennon has had success lately against his friend, but that wasn’t the case Saturday.
Amiri was the more aggressive player. He broke McKennon’s serve early in the first set, and the lefty McKennon could never quite get it back. He earned a break point with Amiri serving for the set at 5-3, but Amiri saved it with a big serve. He eventually won the set with a cross-court backhand winner.
“He played really well,” said McKennon, who is attending online school through Advantage at the moment but will be a freshman at Newport Harbor High in the fall. “He doesn’t [usually] make that many shots, so he played really well. I was kind of nervous at first, because there were so many people here [at Libbey Park], but I got used to it.”
McKennon’s serve was broken in the seventh game of the second set, and again trying to stay in the match at 3-5. Still, he has been playing well lately, making a nice run at the Easter Bowl this spring.
McKennon, who beat No. 5-seeded Daniel Zhou of Alhambra, 6-0, 6-3, in the boys’ 14 semifinals Saturday morning, has grown roughly six inches in the past year to his current 6-foot height. He enjoyed his first The Ojai experience. After the finals against Amiri, a ball boy approached him and asked McKennon to autograph the inside of his cap.
“Aww,” said some girls wearing Advantage T-shirts standing nearby. McKennon just smiled.
“The sites were all great,” McKennon said. “The people were all great, the refs were all nice. It’s a great tournament.”
McKennon will next be in action next weekend at the Woody Hunt South Bay tournament.
In other Ojai action, Newport Beach resident Joseph Di Giulio played for UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship on Saturday night at Libbey Park.
