A Honolulu Challenger tennis match that began under a brilliant red sky Wednesday night ended with 19-year-old Jack Sock hugging a tiny ballboy he had hit with one of his ferocious serves. Unfortunately for Aiea’s Dennis Lajola, Sock’s serve blasted him as well.
Sock, possibly the next great American hope — again, ousted Lajola in the opening round of the U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit event at Kailua Racquet Club, 6-3, 6-2.
Four months ago, the 19-year-old Sock was shocking the tennis world when he won the U.S. Open mixed doubles championship with Melanie Oudin.
"That was an amazing moment, obviously the best in my tennis career so far," said Sock, born in Nebraska, but 80-0 in a Kansas high school career. "You gotta live it up for a little bit after, but then you have to get back to work. I’m trying to play a lot of matches and work my way up to the top of the world."
Eight months ago Lajola, 22, was closing a decorated University of Hawaii career in which he lifted the Rainbows to their first three Western Athletic Conference championships and become UH’s first WAC Player of the Year.
The difference was evident Tuesday, before about 400 spectators stuffed in and around KRC’s show court. Sock, coming off a Futures win on clay in Florida, had a huge serve Lajola could not break. The winner of both the 2010 USTA 18 nationals and U.S. Open boys titles also let loose with a crushing inside-out forehand and deft drop shot.
Lajola ran almost everything down, hit some amazing shots and could not come close. He lost his first service game at love, then couldn’t convert on his only two break points in the opening set against Sock.
Lajola was up 1-0 and love-30 on Sock’s first serve of the second set. He lost eight of the next 10 points and could never catch up.
"I couldn’t find his weakness, I was searching the whole time," said Lajola, now headed for another Challenger in Dallas. "It was definitely hard just to get a point off his serve. He has a really good first and second serve and he was moving it around so it was hard to get a groove on my return. I was really off-balance. He played great tennis."
Last year, Sock became the first USTA Boys 18s champion to win a round in the main draw of the U.S. Open in 15 years. He fell to Andy Roddick — who won this Challenger in 2001 — in the second round.
Lajola is clearly a better player after eights months playing pro events and training with Michael Chang, but he will never be Roddick. At 5 feet 9, Lajola plays Chang’s grinding game and Sock was too stubborn to let him grind into the match.
On Tuesday, second-seeded Bobby Reynolds defeated Leo Rosenberg, Lajola’s former Rainbows teammate, 6-4, 6-4. It was Rosenberg’s pro debut. Reynolds has won 29 Pro Circuit titles.
All the Hawaii doubles teams also were ousted Tuesday. Sock and Nicholas Monroe beat Ikaika Jobe and Hendrik Bode 6-2, 6-4. Former Hawaii Pacific All-Americans Jan Axel Tribler and Mikael Maatta fell 6-2, 7-5 to Peter Polansky and Tim Smyczek. Lajola, playing with Michael McClune, lost 6-3, 6-2 to Amer Deli and Travis Rettenmaier.
Second-round matches begin at 10 a.m., with top-seeded Go Soeda meeting Kamil Capkovic in one of the openers.
