Palm Springs native wins with little practice

Rick Devereux

Some people might question the wisdom of entering a prestigious

tennis tournament without a lot of practice the weeks before for

preparation. But for Martina Nejedly, winner of the 43rd annual Roy

Emerson Adoption Guild tennis tournament, it is the reality of her

living situation.

Nejedly is from Palm Springs and finds it hard to play people

where she lives.

“I still workout, but I play maybe a tournament a month,” Nejedly

said after her 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Ana Skafar. “But I don’t

practice in between because I’m from the desert. It’s really hot, so

there’s not that many people that play there. I should move here,

maybe, and find more people to play with.”

Nejedly took a 4-2 lead in the first set, but Skafar battled back

to win using perfectly placed drop shots and lobs that kept Nejedly

running.

“I felt pretty good ending the first set 6-4, I thought everything

would go the same way,” Skafar said. “But it changed and my game

dropped. I thought my serve was still there, but everything else

disappeared. I don’t know why. In the second and third set I was

hoping I would come back, but it just didn’t happen.”

For Nejedly, after the first set, she took pressure off herself

with some self-deprecating philosophy.

“I was nervous,” she said. “The whole first set, I was choking. I

couldn’t even breathe. Finally I thought, ‘OK, fine, I’m probably

going to lose so I’m just going to hit it.’ So then I just started

hitting it and I won. It always feels good to win, I guess,

especially if you don’t play that much.”

Also winning an open singles title was Michael Jessup. He defeated

Oren Motevessel, 6-1, 6-0. The two paired later in the day to take

home the open doubles title.

“I had just a terrible off day and he played really good, just got

to everything,” Motevessel said. “It was a mental day. Once a year

you get those mental matches that you just can’t hit a ball in the

court and you don’t know what to do all day. Unfortunately, it was

today.”

Jessup, a Pepperdine alum and the No. 1 singles player in NorCal,

has now won every big local tournament.

“It feels awesome,” Jessup said. “This is the first time that I’ve

won the Adoption Guild. I’ve won all of the other Orange County

tournaments. I’ve won the CHOC, the Top Gun, but this is the only one

that has eluded me. I’ve lost in the finals twice, so it was nice to

get the monkey off my back.”