Neither fog nor wind nor rain ...

Sabrina Sakaguchi

Despite heavy fog, high winds, rain and low temperatures, this year’s

13th annual Top Gun Tennis Tournament saw a record number of players and

donations.

The fog caused a three-hour delay on the first day of play for the

tournament’s 1,250 entrees, said Jim Haley, founder of the tournament and

director of the tennis club at SeaCliff Country Club, which has hosted

the event since its inception.

“This is kind of holding true to the tournament experience this year,”

Haley said Sunday after the finals were played.

“The first day (Nov. 20) we had a complete fog-in, which caused a

three-hour delay. What happens with the fog is it rolls in and settles

here and all the courts are wet. So it’s too dangerous to play the

matches because of the slipping and sliding. So as long as that fog hangs

over the facilities, the courts could remain wet and unplayable for five

or six hours,” he said.

The bad weather also caused a backup with the players’ dinner, scheduled

for later that evening, Haley said.

Hosted by Lexus of Westminster, the dinner was scheduled to begin at 5:30

p.m. There were ample amounts of food and drinks to last through the

evening for the latecomers, he added.

Weather also made things difficult the second weekend of play.

On Saturday, organizers had to deal with a four-hour delay after rain

made the courts wet and slick.

But thanks to some quick rescheduling and assistance from local tennis

facilities, Top Gun was back on schedule by 2:30 p.m.

“This has been the biggest, the best, the most important tournament,”

Haley said. “But it’s probably been the toughest to run because of all

the bad weather.”

Though they were able to finish the tournament on time and with few

complaints, Haley gave a lot of credit to the volunteers and local clubs

who provided extra courts.

In addition to SeaCliff, nine other facilities were used: Balboa Bay

Club, Lindborg Club, Los Caballeros Sports Village, Mesa Verde Club,

Newport Beach Marriott Club, Old Ranch Club, Ocean View High School,

Palisades Club, and the Racquet Club of Irvine.

“It’s a really nice thing. I think there is a movement in the tennis

community to get a little bit closer together and help each other out,”

Haley said.

The Huntington Beach Youth Shelter is the biggest winner this year, Haley

said. A final tally was unavailable, but Haley said the tournament will

likely meet its goal of raising $15,000 for the shelter.

Haley smiled as he happily boasted of Top Gun’s record year, with the

most entries and the most donations collected out of the three large

tennis charity tournaments in Orange County.

Haley credits most of the increase from last year’s 840 entries to the

addition of a mixed doubles bracket. He added that Top Gun is the only

local tennis charity tournament that offers singles, doubles and mixed

doubles events.

As host donor, Lexus of Westminster also provided a $10,000 donation, jackets for the tournament winners, T-shirts for volunteers and tennis

hats for participants.

“It’s really great this year,” said Crystal Wadsworth, Lexus advertising

manager. “We’ve been a sponsor for eight years, and this is the largest

spectator crowd yet.”

Other Top Gun sponsors were: 24-Hour Fitness; Beach Family Rehabilitation

Center; Bob White Karate Studios; Edison Capitol; G&M; Oil; the Huntington

Beach Independent; Ibe Digital; John Ridgely; Mark J. Meyers Law Office;

Norbrite; Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center; Pageantry World; Penn;

Romantic Museum; Saddleback Educational Inc.; Seal Beach Family Medical;

Simple Green; Supreme Steel; tennisonline.net; the Wilgus family; and

Time Warner.

Tennis entries will be accepted early October 2000 for next year’s Top

Gun.

For more information on this year’s event, check out

https://www.tennisonline.net/topgun/.

Local Top Gun winners

Women’s division

Entry level singles -- Melissa Lent, Huntington Beach

Entry level doubles -- Beth Fockler and Joanne Sarria, Huntington Beach

Mixed doubles division

Entry level -- Debbie Templin and Lance Newquist, Huntington Beach

Men’s division

High intermediate singles -- Michael Bernstein, Huntington Beach

High intermediate doubles -- Jon Chrostowski and Kerry Flaherty,

Huntington Beach