Hawaii tennis scene went big in 2016

It started with a Challenger doubleheader on Maui, took off to Kona for a Fed Cup that revolved around Venus, then blew into Oahu with the rain and CiCi Bellis.

The year in Hawaii tennis closes with another Fed Cup looming that offers the tantalizing prospect of bringing the world’s top two players to Maui.

Tennis organizers say the stars aligned in 2016. Certainly, the stars found their way to Hawaii, in a year of tennis like we have never seen.

There have been peaks in the past, most notably the sold-out-in-hours 1992 Davis Cup, with John McEnroe (and Tatum O’Neal), Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. A decade later, Andy Roddick introduced himself when he won the Waikoloa Challenger. James Blake did the same a year later.

But we have seen nothing like 2016 before.

“Most things like this — big events or successes — are the result of years and years and years of work,” says USTA/Hawaii Pacific Section Executive Director Ron Romano. “Just setting the stage and aligning partnerships and going after an event sometimes. It might take you years to get an event because it’s locked in some place and has to need a new home. It takes years getting things to line up. We got HTA (the Hawaii Tourism Authority) as a great partner, we got the city, we got Royal Lahaina as a partner. All these partnerships enable you to do this stuff.”

Challengers

A $50,000 women’s Challenger joined the men at the SportMaster Tennis Championships of Maui in January. Christina McHale, now 45th in the world, outlasted 17-year-old Raveena Kingsley in an all-American final. China’s Di Wu upset top-seeded Kyle Edmund in the other final, which also went nearly three hours. The men return this month.

Fed Cups

The U.S. overwhelmed Poland in Kona last February on its way back into the World Group. Tickets sold out in two days and the players – particularly Venus Williams — were clearly overwhelmed by Hawaii.

“I think we should play always Fed Cup just on the islands,” Polish playing captain Klaudia Jans-Ignacik said. “That would be the best.”

Now that the Americans are in the final eight again, they will face Germany — ideally anchored by top-ranked Angelique Kerber — at Royal Lahaina this Feb. 11-12. Second-ranked Serena Williams could also be on Maui.

“Fed Cup is just a wonderful way to bring tennis to the top of our mind,” Romano says. “It’s not just women playing against each other. It’s about promoting tennis and having partners and sponsors come on board and all these fans, most from Oahu, buying plane tickets and renting cars to be part of it. Just the atmosphere … it was festive, like going to a World Cup soccer match, not Fed Cup. That was the feeling of the crowd.”

Beyond that, the Fed Cup Legacy Project left behind $100,000 to renovate the four tennis courts at the old Kona airport and install new lights. After a delay — it was originally scheduled to be finished now — the work is supposed to start in the next month with a July completion date.

Shelby Baron

Anyone that can get around Punahou on crutches has proved herself, but even Baron was surprised when she was offered a place on the U.S. Wheelchair Tennis team at the Paralympics on her 22nd birthday. She followed Hawaii’s John Greer and Beth Arnoult into her sport’s greatest theater.

Hawaiian Open

Before 17-year-old CiCi Bellis made Hawaii’s first WTA event her first WTA victory in November, she showed up at Diamond Head Tennis Center to visit with Hawaii’s High Performance junior team.

She didn’t talk at them, but to them. Bellis hung out, hit and talked with folks very close to her in age, telling one, “You’re better than I was at your age.”

Then she upset top seed Zhang Shuai, 23rd in the world, to win the inaugural Hawaii Open. Bellis, the youngest player in the Top 100 at No. 75, did not drop a set during the windblown and rainy week.

“To have a 17-year-old American girl win it was terrific for American women’s tennis,” Romano said.

Play to Learn

USTA Hawaii’s most successful program finally migrated to the neighbor islands after 15 years on Oahu. The series is open to kids and adults of every ability level. Classes cost as little as $45 for six weeks. All the equipment and a certified instructor are supplied.

This year, 8,000 players registered on Oahu, where the City & County partners with the Hawaii Pacific Section. In the future, Play to Learn will be available on Maui, Kauai, Hilo and — when the old airport courts are renovated — Kona.

Red Ball

A first-year program to introduce the game to beginners 8 and younger drew 30 teams.

U.S. Open playoffs

After a hiatus, the playoffs returned to Hawaii and drew 90 players. “We are one of the smallest sections,” Romano says. “We kept getting updates from the USTA and they would tell us we had more registering for the U.S. Open playoffs than a lot of the medium-big USTA sections.”

Hall of Fame

John Greer and Henry Somerville, two of the most amiable guys in the game, were inducted into the USTA Hawaii Pacific Tennis Hall of Fame.

Greer was ranked No. 1 in American wheelchair tennis and No. 6 in the world. He played in the Paralympics and met his wife through the game. He is a three-time USA World Team Cup Member (Davis Cup for wheelchair tennis) and won 27 singles and 37 doubles titles in his career.

“It was my form of therapy,” Greer said when he was inducted. “My son is the gold medal from this wonderful tour.”

Somerville — the third in his family to get in, after mother Harriet and sister Betsy — kneeled on the ground and bowed to Greer. Then Somerville admitted, “In my family there was not much of a choice about what sport you were playing.”

Somerville won three state high school titles at Kalani, played No. 1 at Cal and was on the ATP Tour six years before coaching Hawaii Pacific. He is now director of tennis at Punahou.

The Hall of Fame now has 25 members.