Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes pitches in the first inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Pittsburgh on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

WHEELING — The week-long Bordas & Bordas West Virginia Open Tennis Tournament concluded Sunday on the sunny courts of the Horne Family Racquet Center inside Oglebay Park with a local duo winning the championship and a Wheeling native being inducted into the Wheeling Oglebay Tennis Club Hall of Fame.

Billie Jo Johnston and Kenneth Dearth won the Over 50 Mixed Doubles title 6-3, 6-3.

This was Johnston and Dearth’s first title since 2016. They had never made it to the finals before.

“We had never won a set (as a team) until Saturday.” “I’m a graduate of Wheeling Central,” Johnston says. “We won three sets this week.”

Both agreed on the key to winning.

“We were just having fun,” said Johnston.

“Just relax and have fun” Dearth, a Wheeling Park graduate, added: “Enjoy the moment.”

Johnston said she played tennis as a child but stopped playing due to a knee injury. She returned to the court in 2016 following the death of her mother.

“That motivated me to get back on the field.”

Dearth started playing tennis at a young age at the urging of her father.

“My father gave me a racket when I was 5 years old, so I have been playing tennis for a long time.”

Dr. Harold Pickens, who grew up outside Martins Ferry and was a senior graduating from Mount Pleasant High School in 1972, was not shocked but proud to be recognized.

“I knew this was coming” “I’ve always helped out here at various tournaments, but that’s not why. My son Jeremy McClelland is a professional teacher here and my wife Debbie runs a lot of the events. I play a lot too. I’m not someone who sits around and watches everyone else work.

“It was very rewarding” When it was finally announced he said: “I think there are a lot of people who deserve this honor. It takes a lot of people to run an event like this.”

The 70-year-old tennis player has spent most of her life playing tennis but has yet to win a championship.

“I wish I could describe myself as that good of a tennis player, but I’m not.” “I’m in the playoffs this afternoon for third place in my age group,” he said with a smile.

“I started playing tennis when I was in college at Ohio State, and when I moved back to the Ohio Valley in 1983 and opened my (eye) clinic in Bellaire, there was a group of doctors who played tennis. I immediately connected with them, and that’s how it went.”

Both champions in the men’s and women’s open finals of the Premier League are no strangers to the winning circle.

In the men’s final, top seed Loren Byers of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, defeated second seed Mitch Maroscher of Salem, Ohio, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to win his third consecutive title.

Byers, who will soon graduate from Penn State, missed his entire senior season with the Nittany Lions due to back issues.

Byers defeated Youngstown State graduate and former West Virginia Open champion Maroscher in the final for the second consecutive time.

Maroscher advanced by defeating Jeremy McClelland of Wheeling in the semifinals, while Byers eliminated Austin Bosgraf of Williamstown, West Virginia.

On the women’s side, second-seeded Lindsay Graff of Pittsburgh, who played collegiately in Evansville and Kentucky, defeated first-seeded Diana Tkachenko of Pittsburgh, 6-3, 6-1, for Graff’s third title in four years.

Graff won in 2021 and 2022.

Graff defeated Amelia Williams of Trafford, Pa., in the semifinals. Tkachenko eliminated Bethany Yauch of Pittsburgh.