ISLE FILE
Hawaii tennis players rise in world rankings
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Three Hawai'i tennis players are now among the top 63 Americans in the world, according to this week's ATP Rankings.
Honolulu's Chris Lam, a semifinalist at this month's Waikoloa Futures and quarterfinalist at Honolulu Futures, rose 53 spots to a career-high 580th in the world last week, and 44th among Americans. Lam dropped to 585th this week, but is now the 43rd-ranked American.
Andy Roddick is the top American, at No. 6 in the world.
'Aiea's Dennis Lajola, 18, won the Honolulu Futures and shot up 718 spots in the world rankings, to No. 743. He ranks 56th among Americans.
Kailua's Ikaika Jobe, a Punahou graduate and former state high school champion, is 814th in the world and 63rd among Americans. Jobe has a career-high doubles ranking of 483rd this week. He and Kaua'i's Brad Lum-Tucker reached the Honolulu Futures final. They won in Indonesia earlier this year.
VOLLEYBALL
U.S. MEN TOP SOUTH KOREA AT WORLD CUP
The United States defeated South Korea in straight games yesterday at the men's volleyball World Cup yesterday in Okayama, Japan, a qualifier for the Beijing Olympics.
The United States won, 25-18, 25-15, 25-18, behind the strong play of David Lee and Ryan Millar and improved its World Cup record to 5-2. Kaiser High and University of Hawai'i alum Clay Stanley saw limited playing time for the American.
The U.S., ranked No. 5, is in fourth place and will face Australia today. The top three teams from the 12-nation tournament will advance to next year's games.
"We played well, particularly defensively," U.S. coach Hugh McCutcheon said. "We had good blocking and defense and it was an all-around good performance."
Lee led the U.S. with 12 points, four kills and one ace. Millar added 11 points and four kills. Gabe Gardner had 11 points on 10 kills and one ace. Sean Rooney scored 10 points on nine kills and one block.
In other matches, Russia improved to 7-0 with a 25-19, 25-18, 25-19 win over Egypt. Pavel Kruglov led the way with 12 points for the Russians.
"The challenge for our team was to conserve energy as much as possible and to win the game without losing any sets," Russia coach Vladimir Alekno said.
Brazil improved to 6-1 with a 25-19, 25-16, 25-21 win over Tunisia (1-6), while Bulgaria (5-2) downed Australia (3-4) 25-17, 25-19, 25-13.
Puerto Rico downed host Japan, 25-23, 25-23, 25-21, to improve to 4-3. Japan fell to 3-4. European champions Spain (3-4) downed Argentina (4-3), 25-22, 25-18. Argentina is 4-3.
