125 participate in Fallbrook Junior Open

The 29th Annual Fallbrook Junior Open Tournament was played July 7-11 at the Fallbrook Tennis Club and attracted 125 participants.

“That was fine,” said tournament organizer Dorothy Roth. “We always like to have a few more.”

The tournament included 11 divisions. “It was a good tournament. The weather cooperated nicely and we had a bunch of nice parents,” Roth said. “They were by and large a nice bunch of kids.”

Skyler Schaar was the only Fallbrook player to win a division championship. Schaar partnered with Samantha Hodges of Escondido for the Girls 18 Doubles portion of the tournament. Their championship match ended as a 6-3, 6-0 triumph over the Murrieta tandem of Nicole Arribere and Therese Recidoro.

(The Fallbrook Junior Open also includes a consolation bracket, and Fallbrook’s Riley Lenaway won the Boys 16 Singles consolation championship match against Harrison Carrillo of Temecula. Lenaway was on the winning side of a pair of 6-4 sets against Carrillo.)

Schaar also reached the Girls 18 Singles final round but lost in 7-5 and 6-2 sets to Catherine Kreslin of Poway.

Schaar, a 2014 Fallbrook High School graduate who will be on the University of Hartford team during the upcoming college tennis season, first won a tournament at the Fallbrook Tennis Club in September 2006 when she was the Girls 10 Singles champion at the Fallbrook Fall Junior Satellite Tournament (a satellite tournament sanctioned by a United States Tennis Association affiliate such as the Southern California Tennis Association allows players to earn section rankings). Schaar and Hodges won the Girls 16 Doubles championship at the 2012 Fallbrook Junior Open Tournament and also won the Girls 18 Doubles title during the 2013 Fallbrook Junior Open Tournament.

“It’s really great to see some of the kids that we’ve had over the last several years and see how they’ve grown,” Roth said. “It’s a nice feeling and it’s good for the game as well when we see the progress they’ve made.”

Two netters won titles in two different divisions. Lindsey Gelinas of Temecula won both the Girls 16 Doubles championship and the Mixed 16 Doubles title. Murrieta’s Joseph Corse won the Boys 18 Doubles and Boys 16 Doubles divisions.

The Mixed 16 Doubles division had the only round-robin play during the tournament. Gelinas teamed with Matthew Hynek of Temecula to win that title.

Gelinas partnered with Alana Andrews of Murrieta for the Girls 16 Doubles title. In the championship match they defeated the Temecula duo of Shawn Barrowcliff and Chandni Madan by a score of 6-0, 6-1.

Joseph Corse and Christian Corse won the Boys 18 Doubles final against Temecula players Kyle Le and Josh Robbins by prevailing in 6-2 and 6-4 sets. Joseph Corse needed three sets in the Boys 16 Singles final to defeat Gavin Spencer of San Juan Capistrano; Spencer took a 6-4 triumph in the first set before Corse recovered with a 6-3 victory in the second set and won the third set by a 6-4 score.

Robbins also reached the finals of two divisions. In the Boys 18 Singles championship match against Francis Filipovich the first set was tied at six games apiece before Filipovich won the tiebreaking game. Filipovich then sealed the match with a 6-4 victory in the second set.

Eshan Talluri of San Diego also utilized a tiebreaking game to win his championship match. The Boys 14 Singles final round pitted Talluri against San Diego’s Kevin Yu. After the first set was tied at six games apiece Talluri won the tiebreaking game. He then defeated Yu by a 6-0 score in the second set.

Chula Vista’s Gabriela Armas was won Girls 16 Singles final round by a 6-2, 6-1 score against Shayla Parthasarathy. Sonya Romanenko of San Diego won the Girls 14 Singles championship match with a pair of 6-2 victories against Escondido’s Lexie Shomo. Girls 12 Singles champion Natalie Duffy of Hemet played Julie Ngan of Carlsbad in the final round and captured 6-1 and 6-4 sets.

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