Women's tennis test their muscle against conference foes

April 22, 2009

This Week: The 27th-ranked Sun Devils Women's Tennis team (11-8, 4-4 Pac 10) heads west to Ojai, Calif. from Thursday, Apr. 23 through Sunday, Apr. 26, where they will do battle with the best in the conference at the 109th annual Pac-10 Championships.<separator></separator>Last Time: The Devils are currently ranked fifth in the conference, after skillfully defeating in-state rivals the Arizona Wildcats 5-2 on Saturday, in their final match of the dual season.<separator></separator>What and Where: The Pac-10 Championships will be held in conjunction with the 109th Annual Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament. The Pac-10 women will play at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club Thursday, Apr. 23 and Friday, Apr. 24. All semifinal and final matches on Saturday, Apr. 25 and Sunday, Apr. 26 are at Libbey Park in Ojai. Matches begin at 8 a.m., with two rounds of singles on opening day. One round of singles and two rounds of doubles will be played on Friday. The Pac-10 women's singles final will be held at approximately 11 a.m. on Sunday and the tournament will conclude with the women's doubles championship at 2 p.m. Results will be posted at www.ojaitourney.org, as well as on the Pac-10 website: www.pac-10.org.<separator></separator>Who: For the women, the 32-player singles draw consists of three players from each of the nine schools that sponsor women's tennis, with five additional competitors selected by a committee of coaches, based upon the participant's record. The 16-team women's doubles draw will have one doubles team from each school and seven additional teams selected by the committee, based upon the participants' record. As soon as these are announced they will be made available on www.thesundevils.com.<separator></separator>Ojai Info.: The Pac-10 Championships will again be the featured event at this year's 109th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, which attracts 1,600 of the best college, junior and open players from the Western states. The annual event, started by William Thacher in 1896, has been played at the same site and interrupted only five times. If this tournament, put on entirely by volunteer efforts on public and privately owned courts, seems an unlikely place to see championship quality players, consider who has appeared here: Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport, Michael Chang, Rick Leach, Tracy Austin, Billy Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors and the Bryan twins. These tennis greats are among more than 85 former players at The Ojai who have gone on to win one or more Grand Slam events as professional tennis players, all of whom are listed on Libbey Park's "Wall of Fame."