Gaspar, Sandblom top Dillingham seeds

Advertiser Staff

Four-time All-Americans Erik Sandblom and Petra Gaspar go into the 50th annual Dillingham Tennis Championships as the top seeds. The tournament's main draw starts tomorrow and both singles finals are Monday at 1 p.m. at Punahou School.

Sandblom won the 1996, '97 and 2001 Dillingham men's championships while enjoying a celebrated NCAA Division II career at Hawai'i Pacific. He also captured last year's Kailua Night Doubles Championship, with Brigham Young-Hawai'i's Daouda Ndiaye.

Gaspar won a Division II national championship with BYUH. She has been Hungary's top-ranked player and held a world ranking of No. 165 five years ago.

The second seed in the men's draw is HPU's Mikael Maatta, who lost to Sandblom in last year's final. Jesse Walter, a two-time Dillingham champion from Seattle, is seeded third. HPU's Blaz Jurjec is fourth.

Tagifano So'onalole-Taosoga, Gaspar's BYUH teammate, is the No. 2 seed. So'onalole won three gold medals for Western Samoa at the 1999 South Pacific Games. University of Hawai'i teammates Lauren Fitzgerald and Stacy Hakikawa are the third and fourth seeds.

The tournament offers $10,000 in prize money. Admission is free and there will be hitting clinics Monday at 11:30 a.m. Matches begin at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday and 10 a.m. Monday.

In other tennis news, Punahou Club member Max Pavon won the men's 60's singles title at the recent 2002 U.S. Professional Tennis Association International Championships in Las Vegas. Pavon was also a finalist in men's 60 doubles.