Tournament director Don Atkinson peeled open fresh cans of tennis balls and handed them to the singles finalists of the 27th annual Betty Blakeman Memorial tournament.

“Do you know each other? he deadpanned.

Oh, yes they do.

Olivia Leavitt and Julia Brogan were teammates at Falmouth High for three years and still practice together. Eliot Potvin and Dana Parziale both teach tennis at The Racket and Fitness Center, where Sunday’s Blakeman matches were moved because of inclement weather.

In two battles of the familiar, the top seeds prevailed as Leavitt and Potvin both earned their first Blakeman singles titles on their third attempts.

“It feels really great to finally have a Blakeman under my belt,” said Leavitt, 19, a rising sophomore at Brandeis University. “It’s an honor.”

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Leavitt led the defending champion and third seed 6-1, 4-1, 40-30 when Brogan threw in the towel because of an increasingly problematic back injury she suffered in a morning semifinal victory over another former Blakeman champion, Karolina Pierko.

“It was bothering me pretty much the whole match,” said Brogan, who compensated by ditching her two-handed backhand in favor of a one-handed slice against Pierko. “But against Olivia I wasn’t able to do that. I have to hit a hard backhand and that exacerbated (the injury).”

Brogan beat Pierko 7-5, 6-1 in the morning semifinal while Leavitt, a 2014 Blakeman singles finalist, dispatched Lisa Tholen 6-3, 6-1 in the other.

Together, Brogan (headed to Trinity in the fall) and Leavitt have accounted for the past four Maine high school singles titles. They last met in tournament play two years ago, a singles semifinal won by Leavitt in straight sets.

“It’s fun but it’s also just tough,” Leavitt said, “because we’re friends and we play together all the time.”

Potvin, 27, is a former two-time state high school champion from Hampden Academy who went on to play at Georgia Tech and on the professional circuit for a year. He was hired at The Racket and Fitness Center this spring, a few months after Parziale, and has been teaching this summer at Portland Country Club.

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They met in the finals of the Angell Open in April and again on Sunday on the same court inside the same building, with nearly the same results. Potvin won 6-3, 6-1 on Sunday. In April it was 6-3, 6-3.

“We played exactly the same match, almost,” Parziale said. “Very similar.”

Previous rounds in the men’s singles bracket of 77 were held in the heat and humidity of Friday and Saturday in and around Yarmouth High. Sunday morning’s semifinals saw Potvin beating No. 4 Eric Parziale 6-3, 6-3 and No. 2 Dana Parziale defeating No. 6 Jesse Butler 6-2, 6-2.

“I would have preferred to play outside, but it is what it is,” Dana Parziale said. “You can’t control the weather. He plays such an aggressive game. His balls definitely move quickly. Outside, you have a little more time.”

Both players held serve in the opening set until Potvin broke Parziale to take a 4-2 lead after Parziale had fought off three previous break points. Potvin then opened the second set with another break and never lost his own serve.

“I come in a lot anyway,” Potvin said. “I think attacking the second serve is a great way to apply pressure against anybody. So it’s something that I mix in a fair amount. And I like to finish at net. That’s my game: building points, and attacking and coming in.”

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After meeting in the Angell Open this spring, Potvin said he and Parziale “played a ton of sets” together in practice.

“So we know each other’s games,” he said.

Potvin’s previous Blakeman tournaments came when he was in high school and resulted in a quarterfinal loss and a 2006 finals loss to Brian Powell (2-6, 6-0, 7-5) in which Potvin squandered two match points (one with Powell pulled wide of the court and conceding defeat, only to learn from Potvin that Potvin’s apparent winning volley landed wide on the other side).

“I don’t remember, honestly,” Potvin said. “He was cramping. I was 15 and stupid. I remember Brian and I remember losing, but I don’t remember having match point.”

In the decade since he last played Maine’s biggest summer tournament, Potvin has gained experience and perspective.

He even developed a silky one-handed backhand after college that he used to great effect Sunday.

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“It’s just great to be back and see this community,” he said. “Everybody’s having a good time and everybody knows each other. It’s a great event, fun to be a part of it.”

Potvin and his dad, Paul, also played in the men’s doubles tournaments, winning two matches before falling in the quarters. Leavitt teamed with recent Brandeis graduate Sarita Biswas to win the women’s open doubles, 6-1, 6-1 in the finals over Cornelia Deeg and Lori Holmes.

Deeg won the 35-plus singles title and teamed with Holmes to win the 35-plus women’s doubles bracket. Jim Levesque beat Augie Lozano to win in 55-plus men’s singles and Lozano teamed with Charlie Craig to win in 55-plus men’s doubles.

In mixed doubles, Tholen and Alex Uttard defeated Camille Jania and Alex White in the finals, 6-4, 6-4.

In men’s doubles, the top-seeded Parziale brothers rallied to beat Butler and Brendan McCarthy 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

All proceeds from the event, expected to reach about $20,000, go to the Cancer Community Center in South Portland.


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