Ideta goes for seventh Night Doubles title

Advertiser Staff

Kailua Racquet Club's Men's Night Doubles, a tournament with a rare ambience and a rarer-still ability to draw tennis spectators in Hawai'i, opens its 31st edition tonight.

Lahainaluna graduate Ryan Ideta, tennis coach at University of Hawai'i-Hilo, is defending his title with Eric Vervloet, Tennis Director at Hilton Waikoloa. Ideta has won six of the past seven Night Doubles championships. His partners have been Yue Wang (1994), Chad Dudley ('95-'96), Alex Sugai ('98-'99) and Vervloet. Ideta did not play in 1997.

Last year's victory, over Dudley and Wei-Yu Su, tied Ideta with Kendall Char for most Night Doubles titles. Char won six between 1976-'84, first with Rick Fried and the last five with the late Peter Isaak.

Ideta and Vervloet are seeded first in the main draw, with Chris Leong and Ryan Livsay second, Su and Andrew Makarevich third and Peter Sohn and David Lam fourth. There are 16 teams in the main draw; half qualified last week.

Matches will be at 6 and 7:15 every night through Thursday. Friday is a rain date and the championship starts at 6 p.m. on Saturday. All matches are best 2-of-3 sets, with the exception of the 3-of-5 final.

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Mike MacKinnon Fund to support the development of local junior tennis programs. A silent auction will be held, and there will be prize drawings each night. The grand prize is a LASIK eye surgery by Eyesight Hawai'i.

Admission is free and food is available for purchase each night. The theme of this year's tournament is "2001: A Tennis Odyssey." For more information, call the club at 263-4444.