Hrdina ousts top three seeds to win Fallbrook Open

Unseeded Bobby Hrdina defeated the top three seeds in the Men’s Open Singles division of the 32nd Annual Fallbrook Open to win that division.

Hrdina defeated top-seeded Aaron Yovan in the quarterfinals, third-seeded Dave Maxwell in the semifinals, and second-seeded Vladislav Molenda in the finals of the tournament at the Fallbrook Tennis Club which began June 3 and ended June 11.

“That’s an accomplishment,” tournament organizer Dorothy Roth said of Hrdina prevailing over the top three seeds.

Hrdina, who lives in El Cajon, closed out the tournament with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Molenda, who lives in Rancho Santa Margarita.

The Women’s Open Singles division saw the top two seeds reach the finals with top-seeded Barbara Tinsley, who lives in San Diego, prevailing over second-seeded Stephanie Hoffpauir of Escondido.

The first set was tied at six games apiece, sending the set to a tiebreaker in which the first player to reach seven points won the game and set. Tinsley won the tiebreaking game, 7-5, and then took the second set by a 6-1 margin.

David Ramirez, who lives in Murrieta but who is a club pro at the Fallbrook Tennis Club and the tennis coach for Fallbrook High School’s girls varsity team, won two events in the open doubles. He teamed with one of his Fallbrook High School players, Roxanne Parker, to win the Mixed Open Doubles and teamed with San Diego resident Seth Mikkelson to win the Men’s Open Doubles. Ramirez and Parker, who lives in Fallbrook, defeated Menifee’s Mike Deigan and Temecula’s Haley Dixon in a 6-1, 6-2 finals match.

Parker also won two events in the open doubles. In the Women’s Open Doubles she teamed with Lacey Pflibsen of Vista. Parker and Pflibsen reached the finals against the mother-daughter team of Linda and Caitlin Aloia, who live in Temecula. Parker and Pflibsen took a 6-4 victory in the first set, but the Aloia family captured the second set by a 7-5 score to force a third and deciding set. Parker and Pflibsen earned a 6-2 win in the final set to win the match.

A total of 340 players participated in the Fallbrook Open. “It was a good tournament. It went really well in spite of the rain on Saturday morning,” Roth said.

That overnight rain forced a delay in the start of the June 10 matches, although by the afternoon the tournament was back on schedule.

Andrew Wasley of Quail Valley and Anne Burdick of Fallbrook also each won two divisions at the Fallbrook Open. Wasley won the Men’s 4.0 Singles title, defeating Sergey Kruglov of La Mesa in the final round with a pair of 6-1 wins. Wasley and his wife, Dawn, won the Mixed 4.0 Doubles championship with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over the Fallbrook husband and wife due of Harriet and James Isaac.

Burdick and Susan Lucy of Fallbrook won the Women’s 4.0 Doubles championship. In the finals they faced Fallbrook residents Jo Allen and Lorna May and came away with a pair of 6-1 wins in the two sets. In the Mixed 3.5 Doubles finals Burdick and Tom McDougall of Fallbrook faced Fallbrook players Richard Crook and Michelle Hatch and took the championship with a 7-5, 6-4 triumph.

The Parent-Child Doubles also had four Fallbrook participants in the finals. Walter and Susan Henderson defeated Claudia Fihe and Austin Pardo, taking a 6-2 victory in the first set and a 6-4 victory in the second set.

The tournament had a Parent Child Doubles division and a Parent-Child A division, which is a stronger division than the Parent-Child Doubles class. The Fallbrook duo of Fran and Megan White captured the Parent-Child A championship, taking a pair of 6-2 victories in the finals over Linda Brokaw and Taylor Jacobson of Lake Elsinore.

The tournament also had a Father-Son Doubles division which was won by Jay and J.B. Schiller of La Jolla. The Schillers faced Ramsey and Jack Gerber of Apple Valley in the finals. The first set was tied at six games apiece, creating the tiebreaker in which the winner m ust not only reach seven points but also have at least a two-point advantage. The tiebreaker required 16 points before the Gerbers came away with the 9-7 win. The Schillers, however, captured a 6-4 win in the second set and a 6-1 win in the third and deciding set for the championship.

Brokaw reached the finals in three different events. She teamed with Fallbrook’s Michael Marischal in the Mixed 4.5 Doubles which was won by Sandy and Scott Harper of Fallbrook. The Harpers won the first set, 7-6, after a 7-3 tiebreaking game over Brokaw and Marischal, and sealed the match with a 6-2 win in the second set. Brokaw also teamed with Leslie Branson of Fallbrook in the Women’s 4.5 Doubles and faced Vista’s Heide Clay and Temecula’s Eileen Killeen in the finals; Clay and Killeen won the championship with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.

Marischal was a winner in the Men’s 4.0 Doubles, where he teamed with John Puga of Fallbrook. They reached the finals and took on Bruce Hanson of Fallbrook and Patrick Trimm of San Diego. Hansen and Trimm won the first set, earning a 7-3 victory in the tiebreaker for the 7-6 win, but Marischal and Puga came back with a 6-3 victory in the second set before a 6-4 win in the third set.

Tony Ybarra of Ramona also reached the finals in two divisions, as did Dawn Wasley and Ramsey Gerber. Ybarra won the Men’s 4.5 Singles, taking on Tony Navarro of Vista in the final round and prevailing with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 result. Ybarra and Jim Wrage of San Diego teamed up in the Men’s 5.5 Doubles, in which Temecula’s Robert Bryant and Oceanside’s Dennis Nelson captured the championship with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Ybarra and Wrage in the finals.

Dawn Wasley augmented her Mixed 4.0 Doubles championship with a trip to the finals in the Women’s 3.5 Doubles, where she teamed with Julie Annet of Canyon Lake before the duo fell in three sets. The championship of the Women’s 3.5 Doubles was won by Escondido residents Patti Groves and Heather Hodgson, who sandwiched a pair of 6-3 victories around a 6-2 win by Wasley and Annet in the second set.

In addition to his runner-up position in the Father-Son Doubles, Ramsey Gerber won the Men’s 5.5 Singles, taking a pair of 6-0 victories from Temecula’s Mario Cernousek in the championship match.

Fallbrook sisters Beth and Jenny Sharratt faced each other in the finals of the Women’s 4.5 Singles. Beth Sharratt took a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the championship match.

In the Men’s 4.5 Doubles, the Temecula duo of Joseph Bellweg and Jim Cunningham earned the championship after a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the finals over John Lachut of Poway and Rich Richardson of Escondido.

In the Women’s 4.0 Singles, Bridget Youngdale of Vista defeated Brenda Fields of Fallbrook to win the championship; Youngdale took a 6-4 victory in the first set of the finals and was leading 1-0 in the second set when Fields retired due to an injury. Cherie Van Wechel of Fallbrook won the Women’s 3.5 Singles with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory in the finals over Chris Richardson of Escondido. Andreea Trufasu of Solana Beach won the Women’s 2.5 Singles after a 6-2, 6-4 victory in the finals over Linda Johnson of Bonsall.

Terapon Thitathan of Oceanside won the Men’s 3.5 Singles title, taking a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory in the finals over Steve Honeycutt of Vista. Philip Schneider of Rancho Santa Fe won the Men’s 65 Singles with a win over Fallbrook’s Thomas Witt in the finals; Schneider had a 6-4 win in the first set and a 7-6 victory in the second set after a 6-4 tiebreaker.

Proceeds from the Fallbrook Open will be donated to the Boys and Girls Club of North County. The tournament was sponsored by Century 21 Award, Coldwell Banker Landmark, Community National Bank, Del Rey Avocado, CPA Sue Henderson, Edward Jones Investments, Major Market, Dr. James Sorge, Temecula Valley Bank, and David Wetzel Chiropractic.