June is a big month on the national tennis scene as the French Open and Wimble- don take center stage, but here in Ventura County there is also no shortage of significant events.

Several of the area's promising juniors ages 10 to 13 have been participating in one of the many USTA Competition Training Centers since February. One of those CTCs is Santa Barbara/Ventura, which has enjoyed a successful spring under the direction of coach Mark McCampbell of the Oxnard Tennis Center.

After a 12-week program of training and competition, all seven of the Southern California CTCs will gather Saturday and Sunday in San Diego for the CTC Cup. Those seven CTCs (who will select 10 boys and 10 girls) will be divided into two flights and play a round robin, with the winners of each flight to play for the championship on Sunday.

Santa Barbara/Ventura will join San Gabriel Valley and San Fernando Valley in one flight. The other flight includes Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. Each competition consists of 20 singles and 10 doubles matches.

Among the boys playing for Santa Barbara/Ventura are Hank Workman and Christopher Lees, both of Thousand Oaks and Fabian Schaefer of Oxnard.

"They've been doing very well," McCampbell said. "We're hurting with our girls because several of them have been playing a designated USTA tournament in Santa Barbara and have advanced to the second weekend, which is this Saturday."

Several of the Santa Barbara/Ventura girls who have reached the later rounds of that tournament include Alison Ho, Aurora Garrison, A.J. Gomer, Audrey Mayer and Ryan Peus.

"This culminates our season," McCampbell said. "We will get together one more time to get the kids ready for the sectional championships."

While CTC Cup is taking place in San Diego, 500 miles to the north in the Bay Area town of Portola Valley the 34th annual Maze Cup will match many of the top USTA 16-under and 18-under divisions from Southern and Northern California.

Representing Southern California in the 18s boys will be Thousand Oaks High's Denis Lin and Kyle McMorrow, two players ranked in the top 10 in the nation in juniors.

Each Maze Cup team consists of three boys and three girls from the 16s along with two boys and two girls from the 18s. The teams will compete in a Davis Cup format: The first two singles matches and the doubles takes place on Saturday. The reverse singles are Sunday.

Taking into account the two age groups (boys and girls), the Maze Cup is comprised of 20 matches. If there is a 10-10 tie, the team that lost the fewest sets wins the Cup.

Lin and McMorrow's Northern California opponents in the boys 18s will be Thai Tu of Alameda and Andrew Kells of Tiburon. Tu, ranked No. 56 nationally in the 18s, will be a freshman at Cal this fall. Kells, ranked No. 37, will be a freshman at USC.

This will be Lin's second time to play the Maze Cup. He played on the 2006 team with Thousand Oaks' JT Sundling. Southern California leads the all-time series 32-1.

Checking in at the French Open: After a promising start, the French Open ended in disappointment for Camarillo's Mike and Bob Bryan with Monday's quarterfinal loss to Pablo Cuevas and Luis Horna. The Bryans have now come up short in the last five Grand Slams since their 2007 Australian Open victory. Monday's loss was the fourth time they have been tripped up in the quarterfinals since that last major title. Adding to the frustration had to be the fact the troublesome French team of Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement, who give the Bryans a tough time, lost in the first round.

A correction from last week. Sam Querrey and doubles partner John Isner were not on track to face the Bryans in the second round of the doubles. Those teams did meet, but it was in a third-round match.

Passing shots: The Southern California Junior Sectional Championships, the largest event of its kind in the country, begins June 14 in Fountain Valley. ... Another player who is doing well at the Santa Barbara tournament is Sivan Krems of Thousand Oaks. Krems, who turns 13 today, is playing in the girls' 16s and has reached the quarterfinals.

— Keith Kropp writes on tennis for The Star. E-mail address: kkropp@VenturaCountyStar.com.