ISLE FILE
Lam wins second career pro tennis title
Advertiser Staff
Honolulu's Chris Lam won his second professional title yesterday, capturing the doubles championship at the $10,000 Extreme Tennis Academy Futures in North Miami Beach, Fla. Lam and Chris Wettengel held off Israel's Amit Inbar and India's Rupesh Roy, 6-4, 6-7 (6), and 11-9 in the third-set "super-tiebreaker."
Lam and Wettengel lost the first three games of the final, but rallied to win the first set. They were ahead 5-3 in the second and had a match point. Inbar and Roy held on and got to the tiebreaker. Lam and Wettengel had four match points in that, but again couldn't convert, forcing a 10-point USTA Pro Tour "super-tiebreaker" for the match.
Lam's team got the first four points, lost the next four, then got five in a row to reach match point at 9-4. Inbar and Roy held off five match points to tie it at 9. Finally, Wettengel ripped a winner and aced match point.
Lam, home-schooled here and part of UCLA's NCAA Championship team in college, also won a Pro Tour doubles title last year. He is 2-1 in pro finals.
"I felt a little more uptight in the first final," he said. "This time I felt a little more at ease."
UH SOFTBALL
SMETHURST SKIPS SEASON
Justine Smethurst, the Western Athletic Conference's 2007 Pitcher of the Year, is trying out for the Australian National team and will not play for the University of Hawai'i this season.
Smethurst was enrolled at UH during the fall semester but returned to her home in Australia.
This is the last year in which softball will be an Olympic sport. This year's Olympics will be held in Beijing.
Smethurst will return to UH in the fall for her junior season.
