Playing just for the sheer love of playing is a beautiful thing.
Colorado State junior Lauren Strasburger, who is from Brentwood, Tenn., won’t cash a check of any sort this weekend at the 91st Denver City Open at the Denver Tennis Club, and she couldn’t care less.
“I’m just here for the summer, taking a few classes,” said Strasburger, 20, who rolled into today’s championship match against Susan Wright with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Larkspur’s Christin Thompson. “This is all just for fun, just practice.”
After falling behind a break in the first set Saturday, Strasburger, who also was in the semifinals of both the women’s doubles and mixed doubles, reeled off four straight games to take the first set.
Unfazed and adjusted to tennis at altitude, Strasburger got better as the match went along. Content to stay on the baseline, she ran Thompson around and made the former Lewis-Palmer High School star make the mistakes.
“I like playing up here. Your ball bounces a little bit higher and it’s just easier to put away shots,” Strasburger said. “The more I play, the better I play.”
Wright, who is ranked No. 1 in the world in the women’s over-50 division (she doesn’t turn 50 until September) by the International Tennis Federation, spent nearly two hours on the court to split the first two sets with Vail’s Vicki Leroux. It took just 28 minutes in a decisive 6-1 third set to advance to her first City Open final since 2004.
“(Vicki) played well, and no matter what I just try and play my game,” said Wright, who will see a different style with the hard-hitting Strasburger. “The younger kids are from a different era. They hit the ball a little differently and their strokes are different, but I’ve got a lot of experience.”
On the men’s side, the brackets held form with No. 1 seed Cory Ross advancing to today’s 9 a.m. championship match against No. 2 Willie Dann.
Ross, the 2003 City Open champion, finished his match against David Goodman in style, blistering an ace past the former Azusa Pacific star to win 6-4, 6-4.
“It does feel good to get through that one,” said Ross, who won his third Elam Classic last weekend in Grand Junction. “He just sort of kept hanging around and I was never able to really break away from him. There at the end it was just a nice relief, because it was just so tight.”
Dann, who lost in the final last year to Bart Scott, defeated Mark Boren 6-1, 6-4.
Staff writer Jon E. Yunt can be reached at 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com.
