Twelve Local High Schools Compete in Greater Waukesha Tennis Open; Waukesha West Takes Team Points

WAUKESHA — The Waukesha Tennis Association closed out its 2026 summer program Friday with the Greater Waukesha Tennis Open at Heyer Park, a one-day tournament that drew 127 athletes from twelve area high schools and, for the second consecutive year, ran out of the good sunscreen by 11 a.m.

Waukesha West High School finished first in team points with 34, edging out Brookfield Central's 31 and Arrowhead's 29 in a scoring format that awards points for both singles and doubles advancement, a system tournament director Susan Wells, 56, described Friday as "very fair and almost nobody understands it."

Wells, who has directed the tournament for eleven years, called this year's turnout "the strongest field in five years," citing both the twelve-school participation count and the fact that the snack table's coffee urn was refilled a tournament-record four times before noon.

Eight Courts, One Long Day

Play began at 8 a.m. across Heyer Park's eight outdoor courts under a temperature that reached 84 degrees by early afternoon, prompting the tournament's volunteer ball crew, most of them incoming Waukesha South freshmen, to rotate water-bottle duty in twenty-minute shifts. Admission was three dollars at the gate, cash only, collected from a folding table staffed by a parent volunteer whom multiple attendees identified only as "Kettle Moraine Dave."

Twelve schools fielded competitors across the singles and doubles brackets: Waukesha West, Waukesha South, Waukesha North, Arrowhead, Mukwonago, Kettle Moraine, Catholic Memorial, Brookfield Central, Brookfield East, Muskego, New Berlin Eisenhower, and South Milwaukee. The doubles title went to a Kettle Moraine pairing, seniors Adam Reske and Ben Colletti, who won their final in straight sets and immediately asked tournament staff whether the trophy could be engraved with both of their names "the same size."

"We had twelve schools, we had a coffee urn that needed refilling four times, and nobody's parent got into it with an umpire. That's a great day. I'm calling that a great day."

— Susan Wells, Greater Waukesha Tennis Open Tournament Director

Morrison Falls in Three

The men's singles final drew the tournament's largest gallery of the day, with Waukesha West junior Tyler Morrison, 17, facing South Milwaukee senior Marcus Diaz for the title. Diaz took the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, closing it out on his third match point after Morrison's backhand return sailed long by what Wells estimated at "maybe eight inches, and I was standing right there."

Morrison, who won the tournament's singles bracket in 2025, said the second-set comeback gave him hope before Diaz "figured out my serve was going to the same corner every time." He said he plans to spend the rest of August "not thinking about that specific corner" ahead of the fall high school season.

Waukesha West head coach Renata Oskowski said Morrison's runner-up finish, combined with the team's overall points total, made for "a genuinely good day that ended on a slightly annoying note," and confirmed that Morrison would not be required to discuss the third-set score at Monday's team meeting "unless he brings it up first, which he will."

Wrapping the Summer Slate

The Open serves as the closing event of the Waukesha Tennis Association's summer program, which ran weekly clinics and scrimmages at Frame Park and Horeb Springs Park courts beginning in June. Wells said association board members will meet in September to discuss whether to add a ninth court to next year's tournament layout, a proposal she said has been raised "in some form, every year, since 2019, and always dies in the parking discussion."

Wells said final brackets, team point totals, and a full list of doubles pairings would be posted to the association's website "sometime this week, once someone finds the scorekeeping binder," and thanked Heyer Park's grounds crew for mowing the courts' surrounding turf twice in the 48 hours before the tournament.