Sven Holcombe has controlled the Ann Arbor City Tennis Tournament men’s singles open title for two years. That doesn’t guarantee anything when this year’s tournament begins Wednesday, he says.

“My thoughts are that, it doesn’t really matter who won it last year,” Holcombe said. “We’ll call it a clean slate.”

Holcombe, 28, who works in the University of Michigan trauma department as a crash safety engineer, had to pull out of the mixed doubles open draw in the tournament last month when his partner, Marijana Adzic, was injured in their first-round match.

“We ended the first day in the emergency room,” Holcombe said. “She’s doing all right. She’s had surgery, and she’s recovering.”

Last year, Holcombe won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles, all in the open draw.

Lynn Henry, a physician at University of Michigan Hospital, will compete in the 4.0 women’s draw, in which she made it to the semifinals last year.

Henry, 39, has been the champion in singles, doubles and mixed doubles in the five years she played in the event. Like Holcombe, she expects it will take a lot to win again.

“What frequently happens at this tournament is that there are a number of players who come back to town who typically play for their local colleges,” Henry said. “So they’re young, in shape and play college tennis, and they tend to do quite well. I don’t think I’ll be winning.”

But many players don’t enter the event simply to be competitive. It’s more about having fun.

“Part of (what I like about the tournament) is that we get to play outdoors, because a lot of our matches are indoors,” Henry said. “It’s nice to be out in the weather, and it’s just a lot of good tennis over a short period of time, which is something that we don’t get that often.”

Holcombe said he met the people he plays tennis with throughout the year at the first City Tournament he entered, and he also likes that the matches are played outside.

“It’s just a good, fun tournament,” Holcombe said. “It gets to summer in Ann Arbor, you might as well make the most of getting outside and having a run around.”

The men’s and women’s singles matches will begin at the University of Michigan Varsity Tennis Center and public courts in Ann Arbor as the tournament’s second leg begins Wednesday. Matches will continue until the finals are played at the Varsity Tennis Center on Sunday.

“This year for 2010, there’s been an increased number of participants that competitively want to play,” site director Gary DeGuzman said. “It’s gone up since last year. We’re really excited about that. We’re calling it ‘the big tournament.’ ”

DeGuzman, a tennis teaching professional for Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation and coordinator in the engineering program at the University of Michigan, stopped playing in the tournament and began directing the singles portion a few years ago.

“The Ann Arbor area has been sort of a Mecca for a lot of tennis players that sort of pick it up and keep playing with it through the years,” DeGuzman said. “You see a lot of new players that come out throughout the years as well as some of the veteran players that have been playing in this tournament in upwards of a couple of decades."

The tournament, which is run by the Ann Arbor Area Community Tennis Association, is free to watch, even for non-members at the Varsity Tennis Center.

Josh Coudret covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at joshcoudret@annarbor.com