honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, January 8, 2010

Hawaii's Jobe No. 1 seed for Challenger Wildcard


Advertiser Staff

Punahou graduate Ikaika Jobe, now studying law at the University of Hawai'i, is seeded No. 1 in this weekend's Honolulu Challenger Wildcard Tournament at the CORP Tennis Complex.

Matches begin at 1 p.m. today and 9 a.m. tomorrow and Sunday. There is no admission charge.

The singles winner gets a wild card into the Honolulu Challenger main draw, which starts Jan. 26 at CORP. The runnerup gets entry into qualifying, which starts Jan. 24. The winning doubles team also gets a main draw entry.

Rainbow senior Andreas Weber is seeded second this weekend, with Hawai'i Pacific's Hendrik Bode and Nikola Petrov third and fourth. The field also includes state high school champion Jared Spiker, Jan Axel Tribler, Mikael Maatta and Muka Godinet from American Samoa.

Spiker and Tribler play today at noon. The winner meets Petrov at 2 p.m. State high school runnerup Matt Westmoreland and UH junior Daniel Llarenas also play at 2 p.m. today, in a first-round match.

The Challenger, a $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event, is moving to O'ahu this year after being on the Big Island. Early commitments have come from Michael Russell, ranked 83rd in the world, along with Jesse Levine (115), Kevin Kim (117) and Donald Young (194).

UH junior Dennis Lajola of 'Aiea was awarded a wild card entry into the qualifying round by the USTA.

Lajola played on the U.S. Junior Davis Cup team with Young when both were teenagers. Lajola won a $10,000 Futures event in Honolulu while still a junior player.

UH sophomore Leo Rosenberg earned a wild card entry into the main draw by winning the singles title at last year's Honolulu Master's Open.

There are a series of community tennis activities being run in conjunction with the Challenger. Junior Team Tennis Appreciation Day and the Pro-Am are Jan. 25. School Day and USTA Adult League and Play to Learn Tennis Appreciation Days are all Jan. 29. The following day there will be a Community Tennis Clinic for beginners (adult and juniors).

Admission to the Challenger and all special events is free.