Tennis: Double trouble

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - If Peter Smith was going to miss his 3-year-old

son’s birthday party Sunday to play in the 39th annual Roy Emerson

Adoption Guild Tennis Classic, he wasn’t about to return home

empty-handed.

Smith, the head men’s tennis coach at Pepperdine, teamed with his top

doubles player, left-hander Kelly Gullett, to win the men’s open doubles

title at Newport Beach Tennis Club.

Smith and Gullett won $1,000 each by defeating Brett Hansen-Dent and

Carlos Bustos, 6-2, 7-5.

“I wasn’t going to come down here (from Thousand Oaks) to lose and miss

my son’s party, too,” said Smith, who, at 35, was eligible for the men’s

open seniors (35 and over), but couldn’t find a partner and opted to play

with Gullett.

“To play against these young guys, it’s a privilege. I wanted to (win)

for my son. I worked all (Saturday) night preparing for the party with my

wife and spent all (Sunday) morning at the grocery store, then left five

minutes before the party with a heavy heart. I got the bounce house

inflated and I was gone.”

Smith, Pepperdine’s coach for three years, after head coaching stints at

Long Beach State (four years) and Fresno State (six), played, and won,

with Gullett at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship in La Jolla last

March, the first time the two played as a team.

“Kelly had been my No. 1 doubles player for three years (1997-99) and he

was always kidding me about how we’d be a good doubles team,” Smith said.

“So funny things can happen.”

Gullett and Smith cruised in the first set, winning most of the big

points, then won an exciting second set after breaking Hansen-Dent’s

serve in the 11th game.

“I think we had to get used to these courts,” said Gullett, 22, who lives

in Whittier and has captured three doubles titles on the Futures Tour

since turning pro in October.

“We’re used to courts that are really fast, with a lot of action,

especially on the return of serves ... they made some errors and we were

just fortunate to take advantage of their errors.”

Hansen-Dent won the Adoption Guild’s singles title earlier, but pulled a

muscle in his upper leg during the match and wasn’t 100% for the doubles

final.

“Carlos played really well for us,” Hansen-Dent said. “We had our

chances. We were up in the second set (3-0).”

After Gullett held serve in the fourth game of the second set, the

eventual winners put matters back on serve when they broke Bustos in the

fifth game. At break point, Gullett’s volley at the net smashed against

Hansen-Dent for a winner.

In the sixth and eighth games, Smith and Gullett each held serve at love

and recorded an ace. After they broke Hansen-Dent, Gullett held again and

former Pepperdine standout and coach chest-butted at center court.

Gullett was playing in his first Adoption Guild. Hansen-Dent, the 1990

CIF Southern Section singles champion for Newport Harbor High, won men’s

open doubles titles in 1989 (with his stepfather, Phil Dent) and 1995

(with Jon Leach).

In their losing effort, Hansen-Dent and Bustos each pocketed $750.