How often has tennis intersected at the corner of Wimbledon and Hawaii?

While the sport’s most iconic tournament surges into its final days behind Roger Federer and a shocking lack of seeded players in the women’s draw, the Tennis Championships of Honolulu debut this week at the University of Hawaii.

Connections are all over the courts, despite their 7,300-mile separation.

One of the women here for TCOH qualifying this week was Alexandra Stevenson. The daughter of NBA/ABA legend Dr. J was a semifinalist at the All England Club in 1999. On Sunday, Stevenson lost to Alyssa Tobita in the first round of qualifying.

If Tobita’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because at Mililani she became one of 10 tennis players in the 60-year history of Hawaii’s state high school championships to capture three titles.

Tobita only picked up more momentum in her four years at the University of Oregon, where she is one summer class away from graduation. But first, she turned pro, came home and won her first match as a professional Sunday against Stevenson, who was once ranked as high as 18th.

Another Wimbledon connection will come in December at the Hawaii Open. Among the entrants will be Mackie McDonald, who barreled into the second week of his first Wimbledon before falling to Milos Raonic on Monday.

McDonald’s first coach was UH Sports Circle of Honor member Rosie (Vera Cruz) Bareis. Joining Macdonald here in December will be Garbine Muguruza, Kei Nishikori and five others. After two years, the Hawaii Open is transitioning to an indoor coed event at Blaisdell Arena.

Another local connection at this year’s Wimbledon dates back to last year’s Hawaii Open. Su-Wei Hsieh, the 32-year-old who stunned top-seeded Simona Halep on Saturday, was seeded second at last November’s Hawaii Open and fell hard in the first round. She bounced back to capture the doubles title. Hsieh is quite accomplished as a doubles player, having won two Grand Slam doubles championships (Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014).

But before December’s Hawaii Open is this week’s event. The TCOH main draw begins this morning in Manoa — after qualifying ends — and continues all week. A series of clinics is included and ticket prices range from $5 and $10 to $20 — for a shady spot — each day. Kids 10 and under are free. Weekly passes are also available at 585-9503.

Matches begin at 10 a.m. weekdays, with the semifinals at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday’s final at noon.

Tobita received a wild card into the doubles main draw. She is ecstatic and still a bit stunned to be home playing professional tennis, even if she didn’t make it into the main draw. Lena Lutzeier, this year’s Division II Honda tennis athlete of the year as a senior at Hawaii Pacific, is also pleased to be playing in Hawaii again. The 23-year-old German got a wild card into the singles main draw.

Of the $60,000 tournament’s eight seeded players, six are Americans, including No. 2 Grace Min, ranked 172nd in the world. This is the opening event of the 2018 U.S. Open Women’s Wild Card Challenge. The five-week challenge continues in California, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. The highest-performing American at the end of the series earns a main-draw wild card into the U.S. Open.

The other seeds are from Japan, including top-seeded Nao Hibino, No. 119 in the world. Japan’s Misaki Doi, ranked 30th two years ago, is seeded fifth.

Tobita is in awe, particularly after beating Stevenson on Sunday.

“It’s kinda crazy, honestly,” Tobita said. “I’d gone back and forth about whether I wanted to play pro because I haven’t really planned that part of my life out yet. I ended up having a really good senior season and people started telling me to try it.

“I didn’t even have my year planned out yet. Then my parents said there was a tournament here. Obviously a $60,000 tournament is out of my range, but they told me it was a really good opportunity. It all worked out perfectly.”

Tobita played No. 1 her senior season, going 18-11 with six wins over ranked opponents. She became the first Duck in 12 years to get to the NCAA tournament and was the Northwest Region’s ITA senior player of the year.

She finished the season ranked 47th, thanks in large part to an upset of Stanford’s Michaela Gordon, who finished her freshman year ranked 21st and was ITA national rookie of the year. Gordon avenged that loss Monday in Manoa, defeating Tobita 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-3.

Tobita was also named to the Pac-12 All-Academic second team three times, with a 3.61 GPA in her double major of general science and psychology.

She is smart enough to know what she is up against, and all that she has already accomplished.

“This is a very high level of tennis,” Tobita said after her first look at the TCOH competition. “You look at the girls warming up and they are so focused and know what they’re doing. College was a very high level, but these girls have a different confidence about them. It’s nice to see that I can compete with them.”

Tobita has an inspiration beyond winning. She has always pleaded with Hawaii tennis friends to keep competing in college, insisting they were good enough. She proved it at Oregon. Now she’d like to prove it again.

“I want to show them what you can accomplish,” she said. “That’s a big deal for me to come back and show them that college tennis is very good for them.”

Registration is still open for Net Generation Kids Day Wednesday and a Millennial Clinic for those aged 18-39 Thursday. Both are free. A U.S. Tennis Association member appreciation booth will be open Saturday.