Once He Was In, They Couldn’t Get Varvais Out : Tennis: Royal High ace finally enters Ojai tournament and wins title, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

OJAI â€”  Somebody had to twist Nick Varvais’ arm to get him to play in this year’s 96th Ojai Valley tennis championships.

On Saturday Varvais was thanking that somebody.

The junior from Royal High won the boys’ interscholastic division championship with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Adam Webster of Santa Barbara at Libbey Park.

Varvais can say thank you to Highlander Coach Bill Hardy, but he could also be saying “thank you for the scholarship� to a college coach this time next year if he continues the powerful baseline play that he displayed here.

In the bleachers was a scattering of college coaches, who were no doubt scouting the high-school final.

“I want to play good in front of these guys, and I’m glad I started playing better--and I did play good,� said Varvais, who broke Webster’s serve twice in each of the final two sets while not losing his serve.

Webster broke Varvais only once, his first serve of the match, which allowed Webster to take a 3-0 lead in the first set. That was enough to win the set, because Varvais was unable to break Webster’s serve.

But Varvais said he was only troubled by his own unforced errors.

“I was kind of tight and I was missing a lot,� he said. “I just had to get myself going. I knew (Webster) was tough and he was having a good tournament, but I beat him last year.

“My biggest adjustment was to calm down and relax, and just start playing my game.�

Webster threatened Varvais once in the second set with a break point. But Varvais fought back with a winning overhead smash on game point to lead, 5-2.

The third set was all Varvais, who closed it out with a service winner.

Varvais, 15, is ranked eighth on the Southern California Tennis Assn.’s suggested seeding list. One wonders why he has not played the past three years at Ojai, a favorite among most junior players.

“I don’t know, I never felt like playing it,� he said.

“But my coach talked me into it. And I didn’t have anything else going on.�

Other local champions included Travis Rettenmaier of Camarillo in boys’ 14 singles, Darian Chappell of Camarillo and Jonni Seymour of Bakersfield in girls’ 16 doubles and twins Bob and Mike Bryan in boys’ interscholastic doubles.

Chappell and Seymour beat Audrey Evangelista of Huntington Beach and Ashley Jensen of San Juan Capistrano, 6-1, 6-2.

Rettenmaier, 11, defeated Danny O’Rourke of Petaluma, 6-2, 7-5, after he knocked off Nicholas Weiss of Tarzana, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, in semifinals.

Rio Mesa High junior Zuzana Stunova, an exchange student from the Czech Republic, wasn’t as fortunate against Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica, the top 16s singles player in Southern California.

Irvin defeated Stunova, 6-4, 6-3. Stunova, 15, displayed powerful, though often erratic, groundstrokes while Irvin, 14, a superb shotmaker, was deadly accurate.

“I played well; it was a hard tournament,� Stunova said. “It’s a big tournament and you can see a lot of good players--almost like professionals.

“(Irvin is) a good player. I played my best.�

Irvin broke Stunova’s serve six times, three times in each set. The only the time the match appeared in jeopardy for Irvin was when she led, 3-0, in the first set and was on her way to holding serve for 4-0.

Stunova called “let� on Irvin’s first serve at 40-30, a call the umpire appeared ready to overrule but one that Irvin accepted.

Stunova then broke serve and held to close the gap to 3-2. Irvin won eight of the next 11 games.

The most-disappointed loser probably was Ania Bleszynski.

The Thousand Oaks resident and Stanford freshman, ranked 28th in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn., fell to Keri Phebus of UCLA, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Pacific 10 Conference singles tournament.

Bleszynski led, 4-2, and was serving in the third set when second-ranked Phebus rallied to win the final four games.