ISLE FILE
Top seeds advance in Waikoloa tennis

Advertiser Staff

The top two seeds advanced yesterday after the first round of the Hilton Waikoloa Village USTA Challenger.

James Blake, the No. 1 seed, beat wild-card entry K.J. Hippensteel, 6-4, 6-3, and second-seeded Michael Russell fought off top Swedish qualifier Kalle Flygt, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, in the match of the day.

"I've lost three heartbreakers already this year so it's nice to finally get through one," said the 23-year-old Russell, who relied on his speed and steady baseline game to pull out the third set.

Other seeds advancing to tomorrow's second round were No. 7 Tomas Behrend (7-6, 6-2 over Thomas Shimada) and No. 5 John van Lottum (5-7, 6-1, 6-0 over Jeff Salzenstein).

Third-seeded Michael Chang, a former French Open champion, plays ex-UCLA standout Kevin Kim in today's feature match.

Former Waikoloa champion Paul Goldstein also plays today.

BASEBALL

• HPU splits doubleheader: Derek Little, Ikaika DuPont and Nicholas Longpre each had two hits, and Jonathan Torres had three RBIs to lead Hawai'i Pacific to a 9-6 college baseball victory over Sonoma State (Calif.) to earn a split of a doubleheader at Hans L'Orange Park yesterday.

HPU broke a 6-all tie with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Brandon Kahale pitched 2á shutout innings, allowing one hit for the victory.

In the first game, Sonoma State's Brad Botkin's four hits fueled a 16-hit offense in an 11-7 victory. Sonoma's Mike Richardson had three hits, including a double.

Little and Torres each had two hits for HPU.

HPU is 2-4, Sonoma 8-2. The teams finish their series with a doubleheader today at 4 p.m.