The locals shined at the 89th annual Santa Barbara Open Tennis Tournament over the past two weekends at Knowlwood Tennis Club, the Santa Barbara Tennis Club, Westmont College and Santa Barbara High.
Of the 22 finalists, 18 reside in the Santa Barbara area and many competitors were college players at UCSB, Westmont and SBCC. On top of this, 71 of the 125 total competitors are Santa Barbara locals.
Santa Barbara’s Matija Pecotic headlined the local performances by capturing the Men’s Singles championship with a victory over UCSB standout Diogo Morais.
Meanwhile, it was a battle of Gauchos in the Women’s singles championship, as UCSB women’s tennis alum Shakhnoza Khatamova took down current Gaucho Emma Tutoveanu.
UCSB’s success continued into the doubles brackets, as rising juniors on the Gaucho men’s team, Matei Gavrea and Mario Garcia, teamed up to take down Ethan Ha (Carpinteria) and Logan Thompson (Oregon) in the Men’s Doubles title match.
Gauchos also claimed the Women’s Doubles championship, as Ekua Youri and Caroline Beard took down former Santa Barbara High standouts and sisters Caitlyn and Nicole Buist.
In the Mixed Doubles title matchup, Sara Svetac of Arizona and Ed Nava of Woodland Hills took down Santa Barbara locals Garrett Patton and Khatamova.
Santa Barbara’s own Neil Levinson took down fellow area native Mike Blank for the Men’s 40 and over singles championship.
The Men’s 40 and over doubles championship match also featured all Santa Barbara locals, as the duo of Tom Horton/John Haan earned the victory over Ed Lazarus/Levinson.
Patricia Ameca of Ventura rounded out the victors by claiming the Women’s 3.5 NTRP Singles championship over Nipomo’s Gail Edry.
The tournament was hosted by the Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons and Manchester Capital Management, which allowed for the tournament to award a record $12,000 in prize money.
The Santa Barbara Open remains the longest-running and one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments on the Central Coast.