They may not crack serves in excess of 90 mph or rifle forehands with pinpoint accuracy, but many of the 64 players who participated in last weekend's Pierpont Racquet Club Open demonstrated a lot of impressive ability under tournament conditions.

The Pierpont Racquet Club Open, one of 33 events on the Ventura County Junior Tennis Association 2008 schedule, began Saturday and concluded with boys' and girls' finals on Sunday in 10s, 12s, 14s and 16s.

The VCJTA is a grassroots program that has been in existence since the mid-1970s. Membership in the VCJTA has fluctuated, according to chairperson Terry Lynch, but currently there are nearly 1,000 kids participating.

"It's good right now," Lynch said. "Tennis seems to be making a little bit of a comeback."

The VCJTA tournament schedule, which starts in January and continues to November, includes open and novice tournaments. A novice can serve and keep score, but is a player who normally would be unable to win two rounds in an open event.

A big part of Lynch's job is to carefully evaluate the skill level of VCJTA players by a detailed points system that helps her determine when a novice is ready to play in open events.

"I don't want a darling kid to get beaten badly and never play tennis again," Lynch said.

At the open level, some players even as young as 10 are clearly showing potential that could take them far in the sport.

"One key for these players is to develop their own game style," said Greg Haywood, director of tennis at Pierpont Racquet Club. "Some kids already know how to develop points, while others mostly keep the ball in play."

Above all, Lynch stresses the VCJTA strives to teach competition and sportsmanship. In its 2008 VCJTA tournament book, the 2007 results are listed. But there is also an entire page devoted to recognizing players who exhibited the best sportsmanship.

In addition to its growth (there were only 12 tournaments in 1975 and 33 today), one measure of the VCJTA's success is many head pros of Southern California tennis clubs participated in the VCJTA.

Passing shots: Thousand Oaks High's Denis Lin and Kyle McMorrow were involved in several close matches during Southern California's 11-9 victory over Northern California in last weekend's Maze Cup in Portola Valley. Playing in the boys' 18s (in a Davis Cup format), Lin defeated Andrew Kells 6-1, 6-4 and McMorrow defeated Thai Tu 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (0) on Saturday. In Sunday's reverse singles, Lin lost to Tu 7-6 (4), 7-5 and McMorrow lost to Kells 7-6 (0), 6-4. In the doubles, McMorrow was unable to play that match, so Lin teamed with Denis Nguyen and beat Kells/Tu 6-1, 6-4. ... Michael Lowe of Ventura recently reached the quarterfinals of the boys' 14s at the Santa Barbara designated tournament and the round of 16 at the QuickSilver Junior Championhips in Newport Beach. ... The 106th annual Southern California Junior Sectional Championships begin Saturday in Fountain Valley. Ventura County players who are seeded in the event include Lin (No. 3 in boys' 18s), McMorrow (No. 5 in boys' 18s), Thousand Oaks' JT Sundling (No. 6 in boys' 18s), Thousand Oaks' Marcos Giron (No. 7 in boys' 16s) and Sivan Krems of Thousand Oaks (No. 8 in girls' 14s). ... The Santa Barbara/Ventura Competition Training Center team placed fourth in last weekend's CTC Cup in San Diego. The team defeated L.A./South Bay in a close match, but lost to San Gabriel Valley 23-8 and to San Fernando Valley 20-11. ... Former Rio Mesa High standout Stefan McKinney, who just finished his junior season at New Mexico State, finished the season ranked No. 30 in singles in Intercollegiate Tennis Association end-of-the-year rankings for the mountain region.

Key dates: WTA Tour — East West Bank Classic, Carson, July 21-27; ATP Tour — Countrywide Classic, Los Angeles, Aug. 4-10.

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