Andre Ilagan can’t lose today.

A little over seven months after winning his second consecutive high school state championship, the Farrington graduate and University of Hawaii freshman will get an unexpected opportunity to swing with the pros when he takes the court in the Hawaii Open.

Ilagan is scheduled to take on Christian Harrison in the third of four opening-day matches today at Blaisdell Arena. Whatever the on-court outcome, the experience will be Ilagan’s primary takeaway from the weekend.

“(It’s) just an honor to be playing with these guys,” Ilagan said in a pre-tournament press conference on Thursday at the Kahala Hotel and Resort. “(Today) I’m just going to have fun and live in the moment.”

Ilagan and Harrison are on the same side of the six-player men’s draw with Japan’s Kei Nishikori, the ninth-ranked player in the world, who has a bye today and will play his first match in the event on Saturday.

The local presence in the field doubled on Thursday with the addition of ‘Iolani graduate and San Francisco freshman Phuc Huynh in place of Mackenzie McDonald, who pulled out due to illness. Huynh is slated to face Ryan Harrison, a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, in today’s 11 a.m. opening match. The winner takes on No. 18 Milos Raonic on Saturday.

Ilagan, who edged Huynh in the state final in May, was finishing up his first semester at UH when he received an invitation from tournament director Ben Goldsmith earlier this month.

“I was still sleeping. I got a call, I didn’t know who it was … and it was Ben,” Ilagan said. “He said ‘do you want a wild-card to the tournament?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah sure. Sounds good.’ … After the call, it didn’t hit me yet and I was like, ‘This is cool.’ ”

But once the realization sunk in, “I started panicking and getting so excited.”

During the press conference, Ilagan shared the stage with three members of a high-powered women’s draw in two-time grand slam champion and former world No. 1 Garbine Muguruza, 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard and Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig.

Puig faces Christina McHale today and Bouchard opens against CoCo Vandeweghe, who previously played in Hawaii twice with the U.S. Fed Cup team and reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and U.S Open in 2017.

Awaiting in Saturday’s semifinals will be Muguruza and 12th-ranked Elise Mertens, who won three WTA singles titles this season and reached the Australian Open semifinals.

“It’s an unbelievable women’s draw,” Goldsmith said. “There’s grand slams in the semifinals with the group of players we have.”

After holding a WTA 125K series event at Central Oahu Regional Park the last two years, the tournament changed its format and moved to December, giving the players a stop on the way to the season-opening Australian swing.

“It’s such a great idea because it’s exactly on the way to Australia so it makes sense logistically travel-wise to stop here,” Bouchard said. “I think it’s a great way to ease into the season after not playing matches for a couple months.

“The field is great and because it’s such a smart idea. That’s how we can attract such high quality players.”