It’s time for tea and tennis within the historic setting of Libbey Park as the venerable 124rd Ojai Tennis Tournament kicks off today with Men’s and Women’s Open qualifying.
The Ojai welcomes, for the first time, the men’s Big Ten Tournament– featuring the conference’s top 10 teams and including five top-25 nationally ranked squads – defending Big Ten champion UCLA (No. 21), No. 19 USC, as well as powerhouses Ohio State, the nation’s No. 3-ranked team, Michigan State (No. 25) and Illinois (No. 14).
The Spartans and Buckeyes concluded the Big Ten’s regular season Sunday as conference co-champions in 2026, with both sporting 12-1 conference records. Michigan State earned the top seed via a tiebreaker through an earlier win over Ohio State. The Spartans clinched their first regular-season title since 1967, while the Buckeyes secured their 20th consecutive regular-season championship.
Crosstown rivals USC (18-6; No. 4 seed) and UCLA (16-6; No. 5 seed) square off at 12 p.m. Thursday in one of four quarterfinals as part of the Big Ten Tournament schedule (all times Pacific): The semifinals will take place Friday at 12 noon and 3 p.m. with the finals being played under the lights at storied Libbey Park at 5 p.m.
FIRST ROUND: Wednesday, April 22
11 a.m. – No. 9 Indiana (10-12) vs. No. 8 Oregon (14-10)
2 p.m. – No. 10 Nebraska (11-13) vs. No. 7 Michigan (13-9)
QUARTERFINALS: Thursday, April 23
9 a.m. – Match 1 winner vs. No. 1 Michigan State (15-8)
12 p.m. – No. 5 UCLA (16-6) vs. No. 4 USC (18-6)
3 p.m. – Match 2 winner vs. No. 2 Ohio State (27-3)
6 p.m. – No. 6 Wisconsin (17-6) vs. No. 3 Illinois (21-6)
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S OPEN DIVISIONS
Former WTA player and current San Diego-based teaching professional Chanel Simmonds has dominated the women’s event the past few years, winning singles titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before falling in last year’s final in three sets. Other top seeds include former UC-Santa Barbara star Shakhnoza Khatamova and University of San Diego alum Jordyn McBride, who will pair up in doubles with her mother, former Ojai Open champion Dina McBride, and Lucia Quiterio. The top-seeded men include: former ATP top-200 ranked player Matija Pecotic, Theo Dean, former Weil Academy player Emmett Potter, former Ojai doubles champion Stefan Menichella, Renaud Lefevre and Joel Kielbowicz.
Once again, the Open division will hand out a total of $20,000 in prize money equally to the men and women in singles and doubles with main-draw action taking place at the Ojai Valley Inn on Thursday and Friday before moving to Libbey Park on Saturday and Sunday, and qualifying today at the Ojai Athletic Club.
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION STATE FINALS
The CCCAA Dual State Championships will take place on Wednesday at Ventura College with a pair of exciting matchups. In the women’s final at 1 p.m., Northern California champion Sierra College (11-0) meets Southern California champion Los Angeles Mission College (24-0) in a battle of undefeated No. 1 seeds from each region. The men’s final begins at 10 a.m. with a 2025 rematch as defending State champion and SoCal No. 1 seed Irvine Valley (13-1) takes on NorCal No. 2 seed Foothill (9-3). The CCCAA Individual State Championships begin Thursday at various West Ventura County locations with the finals being playing Sunday at Libbey Park.
BOYS’ CIF DIVISION
The Boys’ CIF singles and doubles draws (64 singles players and 64 doubles teams representing the CIF’s Southern, LA City, San Diego and Central sections) begin play on Thursday at Thacher School and various sites around Ojai. The singles and doubles semifinals (8 a.m.) and finals (1 p.m.) take place at Libbey Park on Saturday. Top seeds are as follows:
SINGLES: Matteo Huarte (Mater Dei); Brayden Tallakson (Woodbridge); Oskar Rouse (University City-SD); JiHyuk Im (University-Irvine; Nicholas Lilov (Point Loma); Rohan Grewal (Beckman); Ivan Pflueger (Corona Del Mar); Aiden Mueller (Thousand Oaks); Nikhil Bommaiah (Tustin); Kimi Basamakov (Westlake); Kensho Ford (Palisades); Connor Yang – Harvard Westlake; Dylan Lin – Oak Park; Kiran Spurling – Loyola; Zach Xiaoke Chen – Chadwick; Kamden Harden – Long Beach Poly
DOUBLES: Colin Bringas/Edward Feuer (Peninsula); DJ Buchfeller/Everett Sommerville (Tustin); Alejandro Hill/David Tran (Marina); Aaron Chung/Chase Klugo (Harvard Westlake); Aditya Khanna/Chasen Wang (Canyon Crest Academy); Arnon Jittathai/Luke Donar (Rancho Bernardo); Nicholas Hung/Connor Chu (Palos Verdes); Langston Walter-Wu/Daniel Zhu (University-Irvine).
JUNIOR DIVISIONS
This is the first time in the 124years of The Ojai that a Boys’ 12s division has been created. In the Boys’ 12s, James Borchard from Thousand Oaks is one of the nation’s top age-group players. He won the Boys’ 12s Easter Bowl last year. Ryland Mock, of Los Angeles, is the No. 2 seed. On the girls’ side, Carlota Tarazaga Diaz, of Irvine, is top-seeded, with Fremont’s Misha Kataria seeded No. 2.
Other top-seeded players (hometowns in parentheses) include:
BOYS’ 14s: Eli Villaroman (Santa Ana), Smith Thayne (Newbury Park); GIRLS’ 14s: Eva Deng (Ojai), Charlotte Ackad (San Clemente); BOYS’ 16s: Chance Rozpedski (Palm Desert); Ciaran Tober-Bridges (Goleta); GIRLS’ 16s: Yuktaa Pandit (Fresno), Olivia Gallaway (Lafayette); GIRLS’ 18s: Sophia Lee (Eastvale), Chloe Egerer (Moorpark).