Top seeds advance in Challenger event
Top seed Dennis Lajola defeated Jan Axel Tribbler 6-3, 6-0 Friday night to advance to today’s semifinals of the Honolulu Challenger Wild Card Tournament at Kailua Racquet Club.
Lajola will play fourth-seeded Ron Ma, who beat Hendrik Bode 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. That match will be at noon and will be followed by Petr Michnev against Roberto Cid.
The second-seeded Cid beat Sari Alotaibi, 6-2, 6-2. The third-seeded Michnev beat Ji Hoon Heo 7-5, 6-2.
The final will be 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, with the winner earning a main-event entry into the Honolulu Challenger, to be held Jan. 22-29 at KRC.
Wahine top Kentucky, Kansas
The University of Hawaii women’s tennis team swept Kentucky in three doubles matches and beat Kansas 5-1 in singles on Friday, the second day of the Rainbow Wahine Spring Invitational.
The No. 1 Wahine duo of Katarina Poljakova and Jamie Pawid downed the Wildcats’ Jessica Stiles and Khristina Blajkevitch 8-1, and the No. 3 pair of Aglae Van den Bergh and Martina Kostalova rallied to an 8-6 win.
Poljakova and Pawid led off the singles session with matching 6-1 wins as the Wahine took five of six from the Jayhawks.
The Invitational wraps up today, with Hawaii taking on Kansas in doubles at 1:30 p.m., followed by singles play against Washington State.
Marathon early entry coming to close
The 40th Honolulu Marathon early entry fee of $40 for Hawaii residents only will end at midnight Sunday. The 40th edition of the marathon will take place on Dec. 9.
The 2011 marathon had 8,201 Hawaii entries out of 22,615 total registered.
To register, go to www.honolulumarathon.org.