On the first official day of summer, a mellow crowd gathered to watch former Cherry Creek two-time Class 5A state champion Chris Cooprider defeat Samir Iftikhar 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3 in the men’s open singles main event at the 99th Denver City Open.
Long morning matches Sunday at the Denver Tennis Club delayed the Cooprider-Iftikhar title match 90 minutes, but the fans who stayed to see it weren’t disappointed.
Beginning in the first set, the crowd was awestruck because of the length of rallys and the difficult shots made to keep them alive. The silence of the fans was interrupted only by applause and chirps of “amazing” and “what a shot.”
Cooprider credited the crowd with giving him home-court advantage and the mental toughness to battle through late-match cramping that nearly derailed him.
“It was a long day, fighting through a tough three-setter in mixed doubles, then following it up with this,” he said. “My knees almost gave out, but I changed my game plan to shorten the volleys and got the win.”
Cooprider said the title match was a good warm-up for his travels to Portugal and Spain next month to compete in professional tournaments. Despite receiving a top-1,000 ITF ranking in his first month as a pro, he has played only sporadically overseas since graduating from North Carolina-Wilmington in 2013.
“There’s not enough money in that level of pro tennis. You have to be in the top 200 to see any real money,” Cooprider said. “Most of the time you end up losing money even if you win the tournament.”
Cooprider didn’t lose money Sunday. He took home a check for $1,300, which brought a smile to his face after a tough day of tennis.
But it’s not all about the money for Cooprider. He started playing tennis when he was 7, and it wasn’t until he was 16 that he envisioned playing in college or as a pro.
He now teaches tennis at the Colorado Athletic Club at Inverness. Some of his students played in the Denver City Open and contributed to what he called the toughest competition at the tournament in years.
Lauren Strasburger, a former Colorado State star, completed a Denver City Open hat trick by winning her third women’s open singles title with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Kelli Woodman.
Cameron Wolfe: 303-954-1891, cwolfe@denverpost.com or