A year can sometimes make all the difference between victory and defeat and that was certainly the case on Nov. 4 at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. In a singles final featuring two former touring pros, second-seeded Oren Motevassel of Sunnyvale, Calif., defeated defending champ and top-seed Jeff Tarango of Manhattan Beach, Calif., 6-4, 6-3, to win the USTA National 40 Hard Court Championships men’s singles title.
It was a year ago when these same two left-handed players met in the final as Tarango dropped the first set before coming back to win the next two and capture the championship. In this year’s final, Tarango and Motevassel each fought off break points early in the first set, but with the scored tied at 3-3, Tarango hit two straight double faults to lose serve and give Motevassel a 4-3 lead.
Two games later, Motevassel served for the set and at 40-15 Tarango smacked a crosscourt forehand long to give Motevassel the first set in 59 minutes.
Despite losing his serve to open the second set, Tarango came back to take a 2-1 lead but Motevassel, playing solid, steady tennis from the baseline broke Tarango twice and won four straight games to take a 5-2 lead.
Tarango got one of the breaks back when Motevassel’s crosscourt forehand passing shot landed wide to make the score 5-3. As Tarango served to stay in the match and get back on serve, he fell behind 15-40 and faced two match points.
On the first match point, Tarango approached the net, but Motevassel responded with a near perfect lob that Tarango pushed wide with a high backhand to end the match in one-hour and 45 minutes.
After being awarded a USTA gold ball for winning the national championship, Motevassel spoke about the difference between losing last year’s three-set final and winning the title this year.
“After last year I was kind of upset. I had the match. I was up a set and I was up a break. I just lost a little focus.
I was playing too defensive from the back and allowed him to dictate. I played too tentative last year,” he said.
“I was focused today. I had a good game plan and it worked fine,” Motevassel said. “I took the ball a little earlier. I put him on the defense more. Getting the ball more on the rise helped me a lot today.”
Motevassel plans to return to the La Jolla to defend his title next year. “I like coming here. It’s a nice place and a good venue. It’s fun to play here,” he said.
Tarango, who rose to a career-high world ranking of No. 42 in 1992, is an assistant coach at USC. He’s reached the third round of all four Grand Slam events.
