Lajola working to step up in national rankings
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| 'Aiea's Dennis Lajola, who attends the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, is No. 2 nationally in Boys 14's.
Advertiser library photo • June 16, 2003 USTA National Junior Open WHERE: At Central O'ahu Regional Park WHEN: Today through Wednesday. Matches begin at 8:30 a.m. weekends and 9 a.m. weekdays. WHO: More than 200 of the country's best juniors, including nine of the Top 100 ranked players. Hawai'i contenders include Lauren Shin, Heidi Kaloi, Chloe Bihag, Jessica Broadfoot, Dennis Lajola, Mark Illagan, Reynwood Makishi, Bryce Silva, Jonathan Farm and Robbie Lim. ADMISSION: Free SPECIAL EVENT: Monday is Community Tennis Day from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There will be free clinics, a Tennis Carnival and Pot of Pros competition run in conjunction with junior matches. |
'Aiea's Dennis Lajola is home for the first time since transferring from Iolani to the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida last month. Lajola is No. 2 nationally in Boys 14's.
He is unseeded at the U.S. Tennis Association National Open, which runs today through Wednesday at Central O'ahu Regional Park. The seeds are those who have earned ranking points in 18-under events. Lajola turned 15 Thursday.
He is hoping for a top-three finish to earn a return invitation to the Easter Bowl, where he won a doubles title last year. He also captured the back draw of the Super National Winter Championships and reached the final of the Teen Tennis Championships in England.
The USTA, sensing "pro potential," invited him to join the Boys 14 National High Performance Team. He played on the victorious Junior Davis Cup team and came here from Davis Cup Camp in Connecticut, where he was a front-row spectator at the U.S. sweep of Austria. Lajola even asked Andy Roddick for nutritional information.
"He said he never ate McDonald's in his life," Lajola recalled. "I guess that's what it takes."
Lajola can't make that claim, but his work ethic is relentless and his passion for playing unabated.
"Kids from Hawai'i are good, no doubt," said Bernard Gusman, Punahou's tennis director and this event's tournament director. "But Dennis is very special.
"One percent of the kids here reach that level — maybe more like point-one percent."
The chosen few often choose to go away. The Lajolas received a scholarship offer for Dennis to attend the Bollettieri Tennis Academy — where full-time tuition is $31,600 annually — from sports management company IMG last summer.
They turned it down. For a semester, Lajola woke at 5 each morning to get to school and his parents picked him up at 3 p.m. for practice.
"It was not fun for him anymore," father Dado said. "He was tired. His mind was tired."
After a poor showing at a circuit event in El Paso, Dennis called IMG and asked if the offer was still good at the academy that jump-started the careers of Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Tommy Haas and Anna Kournikova.
He took his baseline-bashing game east for good after the Orange Bowl in early January. He has hardly rested since, except for Sundays — the academy's official day of rest.
Still, it is easier than he expected.
"They teach you how to be disciplined," Lajola said. "They tell you to 'take ownership' — of yourself. Don't rely on anybody."
He stays with the other "elite" players in the villas off-campus. His day starts at 6:30 a.m., with tennis from 8 to 10, conditioning from 10:15 to 11:30, online classes from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. and match play from 4 to 6. He calls his parents after dinner every night, except when he falls asleep first.
"It's really tough, but I like it," Lajola said. "If you're not motivated to get better, they kind of give up on you. They don't if you really want to work at it. I choose to work."
He is taller and stronger than the 5-foot-6, 135-pound Iolani freshman of last semester. His shots have more pop and he already senses improved stamina, quickness and balance. It is partly survival instinct.
"My shots got bigger because we're playing with the top players in the world," Lajola said. "You have to get better. Everyone pushes you so hard. You don't want to lose."
The rest of his year will find him in South America and Europe, back to the Mainland for more major national junior events and the academy, then playing on the Chanda Rubin developmental tour.
The vastness of his vision for his future makes this national in Hawai'i that much sweeter. He is again surrounded by people he knows. There are 29 girls from Hawai'i in the 64-player draw, and a dozen boys.
None are seeded. The No. 1 seeds here, Tarakaa Bertrand of Virginia and Jonathan Tragardh from California, are ranked sixth and 12th nationally in the 18s.
That is the next bar Lajola has set for himself. He is also setting it for every junior in Hawai'i, as is this tournament.
"That was one of the motivating factors why I wanted to keep this national tournament in Hawai'i," said Gusman. "In that way the kids have a major tournament in their backyard they can play."
Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.
