The Ojai Tennis Tournament, often shortened to The Ojai, is an annual

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament in

Ventura County, California Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxn ...

, headquartered at Libbey Park in downtown

Ojai Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

, about north of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. The event, first held in 1896, is the oldest and largest amateur tennis tournament in the United States held in one location.

Overview

The Ojai Tennis Tournament is one of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

’s largest amateur tennis tournaments, with 1,500 tennis players, up from the 12 players in the initial tournament in 1896 and 500 entrants in 1949."A Unique California Meeting; What they do at Ojai Valley and the Orgy of Tennis they have - the Nursery of Famous Players,"
''American Lawn Tennis'', Volume 16 (July 1, 1922). The tournament is played over several days throughout the

Ojai Valley Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

and elsewhere in western Ventura County, with final matches and marquee events held at Libbey Park in Ojai. Venues include parks, schools, private clubs, hotels, and even private residences. As of 2021, the event features 27 divisions, including men's and women's open divisions and several dedicated to collegiate and youth players. The

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

conducts its team championships at The Ojai, and the

California Community College Athletic Association The California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) is a sports association of community colleges in the U.S. state of California. It oversees 108 athletic programs throughout the state. The organization was formed in 1929 as the Calif ...

additionally crowns singles and doubles champions. The Ojai also features

CIF Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF ...

high school boys' singles and doubles competition as the tournament falls within the association's boys' tennis season. Other divisions include

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

athletes, men's independent college players (i.e., from non-Pac-12 four-year institutions), and juniors.

History

The Ojai Tennis Tournament can trace its beginnings to 1887, when Sherman Day Thacher arrived in the Ojai Valley to pursue citrus farming. To raise funds for his enterprise, he started tutoring students on his ranch known as Casa de Piedra. With the later arrival of his brother William Thacher, a collegiate tennis champion at Yale, the ranch became home to the valley's first tennis court in 1892 and hosted Ojai's first tennis tournament the following year. (Casa de Piedra evolved into

The Thacher School The Thacher School is an elite private co-educational boarding school in Ojai, California. Founded in 1889 as a boys' school, it is now the oldest co-educational boarding school in California. Girls were first admitted in 1977. The first co-ed gra ...

, the oldest boarding school in California still in operation.) William Thacher established the Ojai Valley Tennis Club in 1895. The inaugural Ojai Tennis Tournament matched the Ojai Valley and Ventura tennis clubs, with the pool of eligible entrants later expanding to include neighboring counties and eventually all of California. By 1912, it was the largest amateur tennis tournament in the US with 272 competitors in 12 events. The Ojai was forced to move to the YMCA courts in Los Angeles because of World War I and two big fires in 1918, and to Santa Barbara in 1919. In 1922, tournament entrance fees were $1 ($ in current dollar terms), and grounds admission (including

afternoon tea Tea (in reference to food, rather than the drink) has long been used as an umbrella term for several different meals. English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of va ...

) was $.50 ($ in current dollar terms) on the first day and $.75 ($ in current dollar terms) on the last day. In 1924, an outbreak of a cattle disease called

hoof-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovid The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed ...

led to a halt to travel, and the consequent cancellation of the tournament. In 2018, for the first time its history, the Ojai Tennis Tournament offered equal prize money to men and women in its Open divisions. The Ojai Tennis Tournament has been canceled seven times since its inception. In addition to its 1924 cancellation, the tournament was not held from 1943 to 1946 because of World War II. The Ojai was again canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Notable participants in the Ojai Tennis Tournament include

May Sutton May Godfrey Sutton (September 25, 1886 – October 4, 1975) was an American tennis player who was active during the first decades of the 20th century. At age 16 she won the singles title at the U.S. National Championships and in 1905 she became ...

Bill Tilden William Tatem Tilden II (February 10, 1893 – June 5, 1953), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American tennis player. Tilden was the world No. 1 amateur for six consecutive years, from 1920 to 1925, and was ranked as the world No. 1 professional b ...

Tony Trabert Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

Bobby Riggs Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December ...

Jack Kramer John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s. He won three Grand Slam tournaments (the U.S. Championships in 1946 and 1947, Wimbledon in 1947). He led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis ...

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Unite ...

Stan Smith Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946) is an American former professional tennis player. Smith is best known to non-tennis players as the namesake of a popular brand of tennis shoes. A world No. 1 player and two-time major singles cham ...

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 ...

Tracy Austin Tracy Ann Austin Holt (born December 12, 1962) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. She won three Grand Slam titles: the women's singles titles at the 1979 and 1981 US Opens, and the mixed doubles title at the 1980 Wimbledon ...

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. Davenport was ranked singles world No. 1 for a total of 98 weeks, and was the year-end singles world No. 1 four times (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005) ...

Pete Sampras Petros "Pete" Sampras ( el, Πέτρος Σάμπρας; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre ...

Michael Chang Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total o ...

, and the Bryan twins."The Thacher School,"
''The Grotonian'', Volumes 22-23 (October 1905).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ojai Tennis Tournament Recurring sporting events established in 1896 Tennis tournaments in California Annual sporting events in the United States Sports in Ventura County, California 1896 establishments in California Ojai, California Hard court tennis tournaments in the United States