Tennis enjoying unprecedented growth in Hawaii

Hawaii’s proud tennis history is older than any of us. In contrast, the U.S. Tennis Association’s Hawaii Pacific Section was born 45 years ago in the home of initial executive director Jane Forester-Leong.

With her sincere and sweet guidance — one former employee called it an “unparalleled passion for tennis and compassion for people” — the HPS became the USTA’s largest section per capita.

The game’s growth here continues on and off the court and in and out of the USTA’s national reach. That growth just looks a little different now, with vast ranges in age and aptitude.

The diversity was never more vivid than last year, when Hawaii introduced the Net Generation youth program and Fed Cup came here again, on its way to glory.

This year, that diversity will again be on display.

It wasn’t always this way. Early on, Punahou’s Dillingham Championship, which ended a 50-year run in 2002, was Hawaii’s most prominent tennis event. Even earlier, there were treasured stories of tennis stars and other celebrities playing at Diamond Head. State high school championships began 60 years ago. Kailua Night Doubles turns 48 this year.

Now, pro tour events have been played on every major island. The 81st Davis Cup came to Mauna Lani — with John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras — 25 years ago. The Americans swept Argentina and went on to capture their first Cup in a decade.

Over the past two years, the U.S. women used Hawaii as a warm and welcoming springboard to their first Fed Cup championship in 17 years, defeating Poland and Germany in Kona and Lahaina.

They won’t be back this year, but McEnroe will. The game’s most perplexing personality returns to Mauna Lani, May 5-6, for a Power Shares Series event. He will be joined by Jim Courier, Tommy Haas and Mardy Fish, along with Tennis Channel and Fox Sports.

Female pros, a bit younger, will also be back on Oahu.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority signed an agreement in September extending the WTA $125K Series stop through 2019. American CiCi Bellis, 2017’s WTA newcomer of the year, won the inaugural event in 2016. Shuai Zhang, the player she beat in the final, returned to get her title in front of Tennis Channel, but few fans, this past Thanksgiving week.

Also, the University of Hawaii will host a $60,000 women’s Challenger event July 9-15, hoping to draw players on their way home from Wimbledon, such as Christina McHale, who won Maui’s Challenger two years ago.

A men’s Challenger could be added at UH in 2019, but the Tennis Championships of Maui — won a year ago by Hyeon Chung — won’t return. Oracle introduced a much more lucrative Challenger Series the same dates, so Hawaii won’t have a place on the Pro Circuit for the first time since 2003.

The last time UH hosted a Pro Circuit event, Aiea’s Dennis Lajola won the 2007 Honolulu Futures. Four years later, he became the Rainbows’ first WAC player of the year.

“A change in the administration has opened the doors again at UH,” says USTA/HPS Executive Director Ron Romano. “They want to welcome having outside activities and tennis, especially community-type events. (UH coach) John Nelson has been the driving advocate, but really athletic director David Matlin is just a little more community-minded.”

Romano also says Hawaii might be back in the picture for hosting Fed and Davis cups. The USTA planned to build a stadium at its year-old national campus in Florida, which has 100 courts and is scheduled to host future NCAA championships. The stadium court is no longer happening and the USTA is reaching out to Hawaii to host cups, which have been immensely popular here, bringing in players like Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and CoCo Vandeweghe the past two years.

“They are going to bring Fed and Davis cup out to the community again and would love to come back to Hawaii,” Romano says of the USTA. “Things have changed in a very short period of time. They really want to do it on Oahu. They said the partnership we had with USTA Hawaii and USTA national is the best Fed Cup partnership they ever had.”

On a more local level last year, and for 2018:

>> Dave Andrews (Player) and Stan Nagamatsu (Service) were inducted into the Hawaii Tennis Hall of Fame.

Andrews follows his father, Don, into the Hall. Dave was Hawaii’s top junior in 14s, 16s and 18s before becoming the first freshman to play No. 1 at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he is in the Athletic Hall of Fame.

Nagamatsu coached under Hall of Famer Shigesh Wakida in Lahaina then, for more than 30 years, went to Wells Park and the Wailuku Junior Tennis Club after teaching science and coaching at Baldwin High. He took the Bears to girls state championships in 1992 and ’93.

>> Andre Ilagan, the boys state high school champ from Farrington, teamed with ‘Iolani’s Phuc Huynh to win doubles at the National Selection Tournament in October. Ilagan also took third in singles.

>> The USTA’s Net Generation vision for kids’ tennis officially launches this year. It provides equipment, curriculum, registration for players, “Safe Play” background checks, training and more.

>> The Legacy Courts from the USTA grant for hosting the 2016 Fed Cup are finally being built at Kona’s old airport area. The original courts were closed in December; work for the four courts and lights is scheduled to last six months.

>> Play to Learn is Hawaii’s largest tennis program since expanding to the neighbor islands. The beginner series has worked with up to 8,000 players a session. League tennis dropped a small percentage last year, for the first time in recent memory, and is down to some 5,000 “unique” players in a variety of divisions. The USTA Schools program is also on the outer islands — including Molokai and Lanai.