Corona del Mar’s Niels Hoffmann finishes as runner-up at ‘The Ojai’

OJAI â€”  Their schools have traditionally been two of the biggest rivals in high school tennis, but Corona del Mar’s Niels Hoffmann and University’s James MacDonald greeted each other as friends prior to heading on to the court for a big match Saturday afternoon.

“Mr. Hoffmann?” MacDonald said, and Hoffmann smiled as they clasped hands.

“You ready for it?,” he replied. “You look a little tired.”

MacDonald, a senior bound for Harvard, did in fact have to rally for a three-set victory over Sean Ferguson of Palos Verdes Peninsula in the semifinals earlier Saturday.

He appeared to be walking a little gingerly before the CIF Singles division title match of the prestigious Ojai Tennis Tournament. But his play on the court said otherwise.

No. 2-seeded MacDonald served strong and beat top-seeded Hoffmann, 6-4, 6-2, for “The Ojai” title at the 121st iteration of the tournament.

University and CdM are the top-two ranked teams in the CIF Southern Section Open Division/Division 1 rankings. They met for the title last year, too, with the Trojans coming out on top.

From left, CdM boys’ tennis assistant coach Alastair Hurry, Jack Cross, Niels Hoffman, Jonathan Hinkel and head coach Jamie Gresh at “The Ojai” on Saturday.

(Matt Szabo)

MacDonald is new to the rivalry. After attending Brentwood High as a freshman and sophomore, he went to a smaller private school called Pacific Academy as a junior before transferring to University this year.

Hoffmann, a junior committed to USC, broke MacDonald’s serve in the opening game of the match. But he couldn’t break again.

“I think that when the rallies got started it was pretty even, but I think he out-served me and out-returned me,” Hoffmann said. “You can’t do much when half the time, the points don’t even start. It was a great match. He played well, I tried my best and fell short but that’s all good. He deserved it today.”

MacDonald broke Hoffmann’s serve at love to win the first set, then cruised to victory in the second set. He only had to save one break point, in the opening game of the set.

“His serve, we were almost waiting for it to fizzle a little bit, but it never fizzled,” CdM coach Jamie Gresh said. “Even the looks we had, with a 15-30 or a 30-all, unfortunately Niels just didn’t play those points great. But all the credit goes to James. It wasn’t the match that Niels would have liked to play, but I think James came up really strong today.”

Niels, who won the Surf League singles championship on Tuesday after besting teammate Jack Cross in the title match, became the second Hoffmann brother to finish as The Ojai finalist. He joins older brother Bjorn, who was a two-time runner-up in 2015 and 2016. His uncle Zoran Korac, who won The Ojai title in 1999 while playing for San Marino High, was one of the friends and family members in attendance hoping to root Niels to victory on Saturday.

But MacDonald had other ideas.

“Especially on my service, I think it was very, very strong from me,” said MacDonald, who had lost 6-1 to Hoffmann during an early nonleague dual match in February. “He broke me in the first game in the first set. He had a couple of opportunities after that, but he didn’t convert any of them. It puts a lot more pressure on his service, because he knows that he’s not going to have many opportunities to break me. It went my way.”

Corona del Mar’s Niels Hoffmann smashes a forehand during the quarterfinals of the 21st annual National High School All-American Tournament last month.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Hoffmann, a quarterfinalist in The Ojai last year, earned a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Robert Freedman of Torrey Pines in the semifinals earlier Saturday. He said he enjoyed the matches and hanging out with coaches and teammates.

CdM’s doubles team of Cross and Jonathan Hinkel made the CIF Doubles division quarterfinals, before falling to the brother tandem of Avery and Brayden Tallekson of Woodbridge 6-3, 7-6 on Saturday.

“We got a lot of tennis in this week,” Gresh said.

The Tallekson brothers ended up as CIF Doubles champions, beating Rex Harrison and Aden Dorros of La Jolla The Bishop’s School 6-4, 6-2 in the title match. Meanwhile, University won the Griggs Cup, awarded to the team with the most combined singles and doubles wins, for the second straight year and ninth time overall.

Though the Sea Kings have two nonleague losses to the rival Trojans this year, they could get another chance in the Open Division playoffs. Playoff brackets will be released Monday at 11 a.m.

Hoffmann wouldn’t mind a third match this season against MacDonald.

“I’d probably rather play him out of most people,” he said. “Keep it local, keep it friendly. It was great.”