That vast distance that separates Hawaii from … well, anywhere, is a little like the sport of tennis on the planet’s most isolated group of islands.
Tennis here now starts with Play to Learn, USTA Hawaii’s most popular program at $7 a pop. Last year ended with Japanese icon Kei Nishikori charming the masses at the Hawaii Open, and Uniqlo’s overflowing new store. Elise Mertens, a resurgent Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic weren’t bad either.
Hawaii was home to three professional tournaments in 2018, with the Legends at Mauna Lani and a women’s Challenger at the University of Hawaii joining the big-name December exhibition.
Those major Hawaii events — some 4,500 watched the Hawaii Open finals, and Fed Cup and Davis Cup have sold out in the past — have clearly become inspiration for the grassroots game here.
“I think 2016 and Venus Williams (at Fed Cup) still was the pinnacle,” says former USTA Hawaii Pacific Section Board President Kevin Inn. “What happened was everyone — tennis players and non-tennis players — were talking about tennis. In terms of growing and developing the sport, which is why we do it, that was huge.”
Inn just became the first from Hawaii to be asked to serve on the USTA’s national nominating committee.
“I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of national board members come and go,” Inn said. “Some you really, really like and it’s because they understand the section is where it takes place. They have the right mind-set.
“I want to make sure the national board has people who are genuine, they don’t have agendas for themselves. They truly love the sport.”
In between the introduction to the game some 8,000 took advantage of with Play to Learn last year, and watching one of the tennis world’s most revered players, there were …
>> John McEnroe and a few other extremely recognizable middle-age men playing for love and money at the PowerShares Series Hawaii debut, won by Tommy Haas at Mauna Lani Bay. The tournament was shown 359 times on Tennis Channel and Fox Sports — 112 in prime time — and attracted 140 million viewers. The event, now called Invesco Series, and McEnroe return May 4-5 to Royal Lahaina.
>> Diamond Head Tennis Center became the “Donald A. Andrews Diamond Head Tennis Center,” after a City Council resolution. Andrews, a military veteran and Hawaii Tennis Hall of Fame Service Award winner, died in July. He was the City & County’s tennis specialist for 35 years.
>> Three-time Hawaii state high school champion Alyssa Tobita beat Alexandra Stevenson — Dr. J’s daughter — in her professional debut at the Tennis Championships of Honolulu. The $60,000 Challenger at the University of Hawaii was the first leg of the U.S. Open Wild Card Challenge. Japan’s Nao Hibino won the tournament with an almost flawless performance in the final. The tournament will be back at UH on July 8-14.
>> Tobita ended her collegiate career at the NCAA Championship, only the fourth University of Oregon player to make it that far. She was the Northwest Region’s ITA senior player of the year and a three-time Pac-12 all-academic honoree, with a 3.61 GPA in her double major of general science and psychology.
>> The Rainbow Wahine captured their first Big West championship to reach the NCAA Championship for a second time. Sophomore Petra Melounova got to the NCAA Championship for the second time in as many years, falling in three sets in the opening round. She was also named Big West player of the year a second time. UH senior Felix Albert was named to the Academic All-America first team.
>> Hawaii Pacific’s Lena Lutzeier was the D-II Honda tennis athlete of the year as a senior. She teamed with Tobita to win the 2018 Women’s Night Doubles Championship. HPU coaches Hendrik Bode and Jordi Vives captured Men’s Night Doubles.
>> 2016 Paralympian and Punahou graduate Shelby Baron helped Alabama to its third Wheelchair Tennis Collegiate National Championship. Baron, 24, is a grad student in speech pathology.
>> The $1.2 million renovation of the four courts at the Old Airport in Kona was completed as part of the USTA Fed Cup Legacy Project, helped by a USTA grant for hosting the 2016 Fed Cup.
>> Play to Learn Tennis, the Hawaii Section’s biggest program, expanded to those renovated courts, and also started programs on Maui and Kauai. There are 130 classes at 25 sites on Oahu, open to players of all ages and talent levels. Cost is $39 for six one-hour lessons and equipment is available for anyone who wants to take a shot at, or in, the game.
>> Waiakea High School’s Maile Brilhante and Kianna Oda won girls doubles and Farrington’s Andre Illagan teamed with California’s Ryder Jackson to take the boys title at the USTA National Junior Tournament here in October. It was a successful defense for Ilagan, who also won in 2017 with `Iolani’s Phuc Huynh.
>> Ilagan, now a freshman on the UH team, won his second state high school singles championship in 2018. ‘Iolani captured its second straight boys championship— after Punahou won every title from 1991 to 2016.
The Punahou girls won their 16th consecutive state title, led by singles champion Alyssia Fossorier and two-time doubles champs Clarise Huang and Betsy Wo. Ilagan and Fossorier, now playing for UC Irvine, were Hawaii’s 2017 Jim Howe Sportsmanship winners.
>> Rose (Thomas) Jones and Rosie (Vera Cruz) Bareis, unbeaten here in doubles from 1978 to 1987, were inducted into the Hawaii Tennis Hall of Fame in one of the most lively, well-attended banquets in history. The two, who are also in the University of Hawaii’s Sports Circle of Honor, both still work in the game.
>> Ninth-ranked Kei Nishikori and 12th-ranked Elise Mertens captured the titles at the revamped Hawaii Open, a 12-player exhibition at Blaisdell Arena that featured twin “tweeners” on a semifinal match point.
In remarkably high quality finals for players warming up for the Australian Open, Nishikori dropped Milos Raonic — both have been ranked in the top five — and Mertens held off 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard and a match point. Bouchard took out former No. 1 Garbine Muguruza earlier for her most imposing win in two years.
All the finalists said they will be back for this year’s Hawaii Invitational, Dec. 20-22.
>> Finally, in a move toward the future, the local USTA Section is converting to a charitable non-profit, which allows it to raise money. The first major focus is to create a Community Tennis Facility, similar to a $1.2 million 12-court project that is breaking ground in April on Guam.
The section hopes to identify a site in Honolulu this year. From there the USTA, which opened a 100-court national complex in Florida two years ago, would design and provide a cost estimate.
USTA HPS Executive Director Ron Romano is looking at a 20-court complex, including a stadium court and various surfaces, that could be used for programs, leagues, tournaments, camps, academies and other sports.
PLAY TO LEARN 2019
Dates (last day to register)
Jan. 28-March 4 (Jan. 17)
April 1-May 6 (March 21)
June 3-July 8 (May 23)
July 22-Aug. 26 (July 11)
Sept. 16-Oct. 21 (Sept. 5)
Nov. 4-Dec. 9 (Oct. 24)
For more information, contact Kristina Adams at 585-9530 or adams@hawaii.usta.com, or visit trytennishawaii.com
