Tennis: Nostalgia takes center court

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Jim Pugh and Bruce Man Son Hing have become

fixtures on center court, but nostalgia took over Sunday in the 39th

annual Roy Emerson Adoption Guild Tennis Classic at Newport Beach Tennis

Club.

In the men’s open seniors (35 and over), two-time Grand Slam champions

Donnie Visser and Peter Aldrich -- formerly the world’s top-ranked

doubles team -- turned the clock back with some classic tennis and

knocked off Pugh and Man Son Hing, the Adoption Guild’s defending

champions.

Visser, 38, and Aldrich, 35, were pushed to three sets, but earned a 6-4,

3-6, 6-3 victory over Pugh and Man Son Hing, earning $750 each.

Pugh and Man Son Hing, who also won the Adoption Guild men’s open doubles

titles in 1998 and ‘99, pocketed $500 each for their runners-up

performance.

Man Son Hing has won five Adoption Guild championships in his career --

the first coming in 1986 with UCI teammate Darren Yates. Pugh has also

captured five Adoption Guild titles, including two mixed open doubles

championships with Kathy Fritz-May in 1996 and ’98.

Visser and Aldrich, who won the U.S. Open and Australian Open men’s

doubles titles together in 1990, won their first Adoption Guild titles.

“We played together for three years (1988-90) as a doubles team on the

pro circuit,” said Aldrich, who lives in La Jolla and will play with

Visser again in the Huggy Bear Senior Tournament, a precursor to the U.S.

Open.

“We only play together twice a year -- this one and Huggy Bear,” said

Visser, who lives in Rancho Mirage and was hired in March as the Director

of Tennis at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens.

In the mixed open doubles final Sunday, Fritz-May and Marcin Rozpedski,

of USC, defeated Ann Mall (Laguna Niguel) and Carlos Bustos, 6-2, 3-6,

6-3. Fritz-May and Rozpedski won $750 each; the runners-up $500 each.

For Fritz-May, it was her seventh career Adoption Guild title, which

includes three in the women’s open doubles. This year, no women’s open

division was held.