What Augusta, Georgia is to golf in America, Ojai, California is to tennis in this great land. A bold statement yes, but not simply the semi-coherent raving of a Sports Fan who attended The Ojai Tennis Tournament over the weekend and became infatuated. Let’s bring in the U. S. Tennis Association here.

In 2009 when the USTA set out to identify the Best Tennis Town in America, it considered 56 different towns to be contenders, of which Ojai (population roughly 8,000) was the smallest. But when the winners were announced at last year’s U.S. Open, lo and behold, only Midland, Michigan was deemed superior. Had I known what I know now, I would’ve demanded a recount and stormed USTA headquarters – or at least the Florida Section’s HQ, which was conveniently located across the street from my old office and thus within easy storming distance.

The town doesn’t just embrace their signature event; it’s lodged in their DNA. The Ojai long ago reached critical mass as events go, and the town could no sooner decide NOT to hold the event than could The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet club decide to take a year or two off from hosting the Wimbledon Championships. Past generations of tournament organizers would spin in their graves. And so tasked with keeping a tradition that dates back to 1895, Ojai residents redefine the words hospitality and charm. In the morning, free Ojai Valley orange juice is available to all takers. It was served in Dixie cups, the kind you would get at a church-sponsored pancake breakfast – of which there was one going on across East Ojai Street from the park. And in the afternoon a simple sign was placed outside a hospitality tent set up on a grassy lawn – “Please be our guest for tea from 1:00 to 4:00”.

In a desperate attempt to maintain some semblance of objectivity I tried to find something, anything that was other than best-in-class about The Ojai. Here’s the best I could do:  Sadly, there are no physical tickets to the event. You pay your admission at the gate and get your hand stamped. A note to the event organizers – I would’ve gladly paid extra for a nice souvenir ticket to add to my collection.

Participation in tennis in Ojai is wildly disproportionate to that in pretty much any town in America. At some point or another, every kid in town has probably had a tennis racket in their hand. Junior tennis is one of the prime beneficiaries of The Ojai, and its participants are all over the tournament, helping out in a number of capacities. Of course there is a pecking order, and it was obvious after watching several matches that there were veteran ball kids, and then there were… shall we say, “less veteran”. I couldn’t help noticing while watching my first match that not since Spaulding Smails took to the courts at Bushwood Country Club in Caddyshack has anyone displayed a harder time of tracking down a tennis ball. While scoring high on earnestness these fledgling ball kids wound up using the tried and true fall-back strategy of waiting for the tennis ball to stop rolling before attempting to pick it up. But try mightily they did, for the next step down in the Volunteer Kids Hierarchy was trash detail.

Quaint as the surroundings are, the tennis competition is deadly serious. In addition to hosting the Pac-10 Tennis Championships each year, the Ojai features a lengthy roster of amateur and intercollegiate tournaments-within-the-tournament. Fox Sports West covered the Pac-10 men’s and women’s singles finals, adding another level of sophistication to the overall event. In keeping with the casual elegance of the entire experience though, broadcaster Murphy Jensen, on loan from the Tennis Channel, was dressed in sport coat and tie – along with jeans and black Chuck Taylors.

While watching USC’s Robert Farah and Stanford’s Bradley Klahn warm up in preparation for their Pac-10 Singles Championship match I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman named Tommy Dickey. A UCSB professor and tennis buff, Tommy cheerfully played the role of historian and ambassador for me, neatly filling in at least some of the gaps in my knowledge of both the sport and the event.

For example, he pointed to the Women’s Open Division championship match that was taking place before a much smaller audience on the adjacent court. That competition, as well as its counterpart men’s version was truly open, paying a modest purse to the winner and awarding professional ranking points. As a result, it wasn’t unusual in any given year to have women ranked as high as the top 25 in the world hiding in plain sight while the crowd focused on the Pac-10 Championship on Court #1. The stuff you learn from friendly fellow event junkies.

At the end of the day one of my key takeaways was this – people attend The Ojai first and foremost to watch tennis. It is a knowledgeable and appreciative crowd, and when Match Point arrived in each contest, the chair umpire did not bother to announce this prior to the serve – everyone in the crowd was already well aware of the situation. In this regard, the contrast between this event and the U.S. Polo Nationals that I attended last week was stark. Which reminds me, if you’re reading this in Palm Beach, can you swing by the International Polo Club and let the people in the Wellington Zone hospitability tent know that the tournament is over and they can go home? Thanks.