If yesterday's Hawai'i Open Sectionals Championship is any indication, University of Hawai'i tennis has a bright future.

WAC Freshman of the Year Sascha Heinemann, who played No. 1 for the 'Bows this season, ran over unseeded upstart Thomas Shubert to win the men's singles at the UH Tennis Complex.

Shubert, 18, was born in Kailua and moved to Southern California seven years ago to enhance his tennis opportunities. Homecoming included an upset of top-seeded Malino Oda in the second round, a hard-fought win over seventh-seeded Bryon Weinberg — No. 2 for UH — in the quarterfinals and a straight-set victory over former Hawai'i Pacific All-American and third seed Mikael Maatta in yesterday morning's semifinal.

"He (Heinemann) hit a lot heavier ball than my other opponents," Schubert said. "He served very solid. The overall pace of the match was uncontrollable. My other matches I could visualize where my opponent would be. In this match, he always seemed to be controlling the court, controlling the variety of shots."

In the women's final, top-seeded Sabita (Maharaj) Walkup swept second-seeded Kana Aikawa, 6-2, 6-2. Aikawa fell to state high school champion Kalei Gora in last year's Sectional final.

Aikawa's volunteer coach at UH this semester was Walkup, an All-American with a top-30 ranking at Tennessee, where she played in two NCAA tournaments. She graduated in three years, married Schofield's Frank Walkup on New Year's Eve and moved here 2 1/2 months ago.

In the fall, both finalists hope to be playing their final seasons at UH. Walkup is in the midst of paperwork necessary to play her final season. Until this week, she hadn't played a competitive match in a year. Her preparation was a week of hitting with UH coach Jun Hernandez.

Walkup never faced a break point in the final.

"She doesn't give you any free points," Aikawa said.

The junior from Saipan played No. 1 for Hawai'i most of this season, bolting up from No. 6 the year before.

Walkup, from Florida, is six inches taller than Aikawa who, at 5 feet 1, could chase everything down but didn't have a weapon to hurt Walkup's barrage of big shots on the baseline.

Walkup broke Aikawa's last two serves of each set to close, and was thankful to get off the court before Aikawa chased one more ball down.

"Kana never really gets down on herself, she's very mentally strong," Walkup said. "You can't take advantage of her getting frustrated because she doesn't."

Heinemann, the Rainbows' first WAC first-team selection in a decade, frustrated Shubert the same way he wore down everyone in Manoa this past season. Aside from a professional qualifier, the 21-year-old German has yet to lose in Hawai'i, winning 10 straight in the midst of the 'Bows surge to their first national ranking.

Heinemann's shots, loaded with spin and swirling in the wind, landed all over the lines in the final. Shubert felt compelled to go for big shots too often and too soon. It worked just once, when he broke Heinemann's serve to tie the first set at 3.

Heinemann opened the next game with three straight passing shots. Shubert, who trains and studies at the Advantage Tennis Academy, fought back to deuce but fell on the fifth break point and Heinemann won the next seven games.

"I was more consistent," Heinemann said, "so I was waiting for his misses and he was missing. I just tried to keep the ball deep."

Heinemann and Walkup had to turn down the $400 first prize because of NCAA eligibility rules. Heinemann did get a wild-card entry into the Honolulu Futures tournament in November. He also won a trip to Guam and entry in next month's Guam Open, but passed it on to Shubert because he will be in Germany.

Heinemann described his first year in Hawai'i as enjoyable, and enlightening.

"I think the coach is really, really good," he said of UH's John Nelson. "My game improved a lot and he's a nice guy. Next year, we're going to have a really good team. We'll be in the top 20."

NOTES

A $50,000 USTA Challenger at Wailea has been added to Hawai'i's pro tennis schedule. It starts Nov. 27. The Waikoloa and Honolulu Futures tournaments are earlier in the month. The Waikoloa Challenger is in January.

SINGLES

WOMEN

Final: Sabita (Maharaj) Walkup (1) def. Kana Aikawa (2) 6-2, 6-2.

MEN

Semifinals: Thomas Shubert def. Mikael Maatta (3) 6-3, 7-5; Sascha Heinemann (2) def. Jan Axel Tribler (4) 6-1, 6-3. Final: Heinemann def. Shubert 6-3, 6-3.

DOUBLES

WOMEN

Final: Yu-Hsien Kennell/Leilani Magee def. Kalei Gora/Rie Yukihiro (1) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

MEN

Final: Mikael Maatta/Jan Axel Tribler (1) def. Jarrod Diepraam/Ryan Sceats (2) 6-1, 6-4.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.