Local favorite Arron Yovan defeated Brent Davis of San Diego by a score of 6-4, 7-6 to win the men’s open singles title at our recently completed Irvine Open Tennis Tournament. Undaunted, Davis then teamed with Elias Scandalis to win the men’s open doubles, defeating the Riverside team of Julian Barham and Darren Yates 6-3, 7-6. A large crowd gathered at Heritage Park for the men’s open finals, mainly fans of Arron Yovan. The popular Yovan, our #1 seed, is a familiar face in Irvine tennis circles. He has been a nationally ranked tennis player since he was 10 years old. He led University High School to several OF championships and then played for the University of California at Irvine. Aaron is currently competing on the ATP tour. The ladies 5.5 finals featured four Chinese teenagers from the Hu Na Tennis Academy in Taipei, Taiwon. Chia-Hsien Yang was a double winner here, defeating Hoi-Ling Sun 6-2, 6-2 in singles and then teamed with Hua-Chun Sun to beat Zhi-Huan Chew and Hui-Lin Sun in doubles 7-5,6-2. The academy founder, professional tennis player Hu Na made newspaper headlines in 1988 when she defected from China to the U.S.A. Her asylum here caused a brief but tense political and diplomatic uproar.
I.T.A. was well represented in the tournament and our players won their usual fair share of matches:
- ATHENA WONG won in ladies 4.0 singles
- ANNEXE CHANG & LINDA LUK won in ladies 4.0 doubles
- DAVID MATSUYAMA & TONY WONG reached the finals in men’s 4.5 doubles
- SUZANNE FRANKS & TERRI HAMM reached the finals in ladies 4.0 doubles
- MARK GROSS reached the semi finals in men’s 3.5 singles
- RAY NG reached the semi finals in men’s 4.0 singles
- RAY NG & JIM ADAMS reached the semi finals in men’s 4.0 doubles
- CHRIS SCHRAOER reached the semi finals in men’s 3.5 singles
- JOYCE LIN AND DARRELL LE reached the finals in mixed 4.5 doubles
I.T.A. was likewise well represented around our famous and popular refreshment stand. GARY BIRD led the field here in hot dog consumption, followed closely by HUGH HARVEY & CHARLEY NILES. DONNA SUSTERSIC worked hard to keep up with demand refilling bowls of bananas, trail mix and other treats. Several familiar old I.T.A. faces of note were on the scene. It was nice to see DALE COLLE, CHUCK CHANG, BILL (the magician) STEINER and former Irvine Open champ JEAN WRAITH. Welcome back,..all of you. Chairman JOHN SUSTERSIC was an iron man in overcoming all of the surprises that come with a tournament of this size and significance. Ever dependable Ray & NAN NG logged in countless time and energy as usual. We can’t thank these people enough. While we’re in a thanking mood, thanks to all of the I.T.A. members who participated and helped. Putting on THE BEST DAMNED TENNIS TOURNAMENT in Southern California is damned hard work, isn’t it?
-Joe B.
Looking to get in touch with Darren Yates – taught Darren Yates in the California Youth Tennis Foundation from age 10 – lost touch about 20 years ago.