Riding his big serve and laser-guided down-the-line backhand, Indian Olympian Vishnu Vardhan capped off four days of great tennis by winning the Men’s Open Singles Division at the Manhattan Beach Open Sunday afternoon.
Playing in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 200 fans, the top-seeded Vardhan finished his Olympic preparations by wearing down second-seeded Lester Cook 6-2 6-3.
The match was closer than the score indicated as Cook dug in at the start of the second set and immediately broke serve to go up 1-0. But Vardhan came right back, and later broke again to go up 4-2. Both players displayed solid all-court games, but Vardhan’s bigger serve got him more cheap points and his down-the-line backhand passed Cook repeatedly when he ventured to the net.
The crowd was really into the match and applauded on nearly every point as the buzz was back at a tournament that had a near-death experience over the last few years before Bennett Slusarz took over as tournament director this year.
Slusarz increased the total prize money to $10,000 – Vardhan got $3,000 and Cook $1,500 – and offered many perks such as a player party and gift bags fir the 220 players entered in various divisions. By Sunday night an exhausted Slusarz pronounced it a resounding success.
“This has been a rebirth for this tournament, even greater than I ever expected,” Slusarz said. “I was ecstatic with the way it turned out. And I hope to make it even bigger next year.”
Other winners included Carter Hedrick of Manhattan Beach in the men’s 4.5-5 division, Andrew Hauschild in the 4.0 division, and Steven Ralls of Manhattan Beach in the 3.5 division.
Szuszuanna Fodor of Ojai won the Women’s Open Division, while Christine Davidduke won the 4.0 and Sulibeth Ortiz captured the 3.5 division.
