The Honolulu Masters Open begins Monday at The Oahu Club, with a place in the main singles draw of January’s Honolulu Challenger at stake.

Tennis matches start at 6 p.m. nightly through Thursday, then start up again Oct. 26, and go through Oct. 30.

There are 32 players in the singles draw and 11 teams in the doubles draw.

The top seed is University of Hawaii senior Dennis Lajola. The three-time all-conference player from Aiea has led UH to three Western Athletic Conference titles and into the national rankings. Lajola captured the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Honolulu Futures in 2007.

The Challenger is a step up on the USTA Pro Circuit, with a purse of $50,000 and a main draw that usually includes players ranked among the top 300 in the world. This year’s inaugural Honolulu Challenger was won by 90th-ranked Michael Russell.

The Masters Open serves as this year’s Hawaii Section Championships and is open only to Hawaii residents and students residing here.

Ikaika Jobe, the 2001 Hawaii state high school champion, is seeded second. Jobe is a volunteer coach for UH and is going to law school after playing the pro circuit. The third seed is former Rainbow Sascha Heinemann, while former Hawaii Pacific All-American Hendrik Bode is fourth. UH’s Jeremy Tweedt is fifth.

The top-seeded doubles team is Jobe and Bode, with Rainbow senior Daniel Llarenas and Rainbow freshman Jared Spiker No. 2.

Teams to senior nationals

Four teams from Oahu and one from Hilo will represent the Hawaii Pacific Section at the USTA League Super Senior National Championships in April in Arizona.

The Section Championships for those 60 and older were played at the Patsy T. Mink CORP Tennis Complex. Women’s winners were MD Wenokea (6.0) and 2.2s Ohana (7.0), both from Oahu, and Super Senior Seasiders (8.0) from Hilo. The men’s champions were Young Guns (7.0) and Grey Goose (8.0), both from Oahu.