The journey on the grand stage for both Christian Ponce and Daniel Vinterfeld came to an end on day one of The Ojai Tennis Tournament.
Ponce and Vinterfeld advanced in the doubles competition beating Reedley College’s James Garcia and Joel Reimer 6-4 and 6-1.
They were eliminated in the Round of 64 by Riverside’s Miles Clark and Gleb Mityurin in two sets by a score of 6-2.
Head Coach Long Dao evaluated the performance of his players in the first game of the doubles tournament.
“It was a good win in the first round even though it was a shaky start they got their footing right and it went pretty smooth from there,” Dao said.
Dao said that in the second game against Riverside, they were tough opponents because they were the number five seed.
“We had some really good chances against them, but we didn’t execute the game plan and it was a tough loss,” Dao said.
This was Vinterfeld’s second year competing in the tournament. Last year he was eliminated in the first round of doubles when he teamed up with Siraj Dail.
Dao said it was great for him to be back, as his experience was going to help Ponce, who was debuting in this tournament.
Vinterfeld said they played pretty well in the first round and said it wasn’t considered an improvement in comparison to last year when he played with Dail.
“It was my last game as a community college player and it was fun,” Vinterfeld said. “I don’t see it as an improvement for me.”
Vinterfeld said he enjoyed competing at Ojai more this year because he reunited with some of his friends. He will be transferring to UC Santa Barbara where he will continue to play tennis.
Ponce debuted in The Ojai losing in the first round of singles against College of the Desert’s Sebastian Gomez by scores of 6-2 and 6-1.
Ponce said that it was a learning experience for him.
“I didn’t play well, but winning in the first round of doubles really helped my confidence. I will learn a lot from playing at Ojai this year and will be back stronger next season,” Ponce said.
