He has longer hair, a scruffy beard and a different place of residence.

But Travis Rettenmaier is displaying his same old Ojai quality of play.

The former Camarillo resident easily upset top-seeded Brian Wilson 6-1, 6-2 on Saturday morning at Libbey Park to advance to today's final of the Men's Open division.

Rettenmaier will face No. 2 Lester Cook at 12:30 at Libbey Park with $4,000 on the line.

"I played a lot better today. The first couple of matches I had a little rust in the pipes because I haven't played that many matches," Rettenmaier said. "But it felt really clean out there and Brian brought out the best in me today."

Rettenmaier, 23, is returning to competition after a brief hiatus from the sport he grew up playing at Cabrillo Racquet Club.

"I had a breakdown and was in a really bad place," Rettenmaier said. "I wasn't really enjoying tennis anymore. It became really businesslike for me, and I felt the pressure for the money and decided I was done completely."

Rettenmaier packed his bags and headed to Las Vegas to teach tennis with childhood friend and Rio Mesa High graduate Davey Jones.

After a period of introspection and some encouragement from his girlfriend, Dione Gonzales, Rettenmaier decided to pick up his racket and start playing again in December.

"She kept telling me to get back on the court and I began taking yoga," he said. "I needed to see what was going on inside myself instead of all the exterior stuff. I figured out nothing gives me more joy than playing tennis, so I decided to give it another run."

Rettenmaier has won titles in the Boys' 16s and 14s at The Ojai and reached the Open final in 2004.

"I love Ojai," Rettenmaier said. "I have been playing this event since I was 10, and I met my girlfriend at Weil Academy. We are having a reunion party tonight to get all the Weil kids from back in the day together. It should be a lot of fun again."

Giving the Sun Devils their due: The Arizona State men's players have 'VT' painted on their Nike shoes in honor of the students who died in the Virginia Tech shootings two weeks ago. "We had a ceremony in Arizona with a moment of silence and we wrote a letter to the Virginia Tech team to tell them we were thinking about them," Arizona State assistant coach Laurie Warder said. ... Juan Carlos Rebaza turned in the shot of the tournament in his semifinal loss to Alex Slovic. In the second set, Rebaza returned a Slovic overhead with a leaping overhead smash of his own from far behind the baseline. "I told him that was a 'SportsCenter' shot," said Arizona State coach Lou Belken.

Dancing around the court: If Lindsey Nelson appears light on her feet in today's Pac-10 women's final, there is a good reason. The slender 6-footer took a ballet class last semester at USC.

"I love it," Nelson said. "It has given me strength in tennis, better posture and a lot of graceful balance."

Drop shots: It will be an all-Weil Academy final between junior players in the Women's Open. Brooklyn native Gail Brodsky will be going for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Ojai divisional sweep when the No. 2 seed faces No. 3 Tanya Raykova today at 9:30 a.m. The 15-year-old Brodsky has captured titles in the Girls' 14s, 16s and 18s. ... UC Santa Cruz senior Matt Seeberger could also accomplish an unprecedented Ojai feat. The top-seeded Seeberger could win his fourth consecutive men's Division III title with two victories today.