Kyle Cumberland reaches for a return in the men's open finals. Cumberland won the title Sunday at the Lawrence Tennis Center.

After Kyle Cumberland won the men’s open division of the Lawrence Tennis Association/Douglas County Closed Tournament on Sunday, he knew it’d be bittersweet.

On the surface, the 22-year-old Baker University junior clearly was thrilled to defeat Michael Angarita, 6-1, 7-5, at the Lawrence Tennis Center. Deep down, though, Cumberland knew there was a minor problem with beating Angarita, a 25-year-old fifth-year senior at Baker.

“He’s actually our assistant coach,” Cumberland said, before pausing for six seconds. “So, yeah, he’s probably going to make me run now.”

Angarita laughed when asked about the additional conditioning as punishment. But he didn’t deny it.

“Of course, of course. From now until the first match of (next) season,” Angarita joked.

Cumberland won the last four games of the first set to establish early momentum in the match. His approach worked to perfection. Cumberland knew he didn’t have nearly as powerful a forehand as Angarita, who looked the part of the bad-boy power hitter with his blue bandana, gold chain and high white Nike socks.

The power differential was no bother to Cumberland. The lefty used his accuracy and relentless pursuit to every ball to neutralize Angarita’s power.

“On my return, I tried to make him earn everything,” Cumberland said. “I tried to get every ball back in play on the return. Then, once I got it to that point, I wanted to try to focus on keeping the ball to his backhand, because his forehand is so big.”

Cumberland’s style of play – he described himself as a scrapper and never appeared tired – visibly frustrated Angarita, who furiously threw down his racquet in frustration after losing the sixth game of the first set.

“That first set didn’t work at all because he was returning every ball, and I was out of shape,” Angarita admitted. “Usually, I can volley for a long time, but today I was just so tired.”

On the women’s side, 49-year-old Ann Broxterman defeated 22-year-old Kalie Harris, 6-2, 6-4, to win the 4.0 singles final. The tournament didn’t contain a women’s open bracket.

“I think the critical points I was able to pull out,” Broxterman said. “I tried to hit a lot of them high, bring her into the net and try to get my first serve in to get her out of her game.”