As PGA Tour events roll in and the Sony Open in Hawaii and Sentry TOC celebrate their 25th anniversary, it makes me think of another major international sports event we hosted nearly three years ago.

Hawaii was the last place professional tennis appeared in 2020 before the pandemic poached it in March. A Davis Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan was played at Blaisdell as the world started to shut down.

It was the first time Davis Cup had been here since John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi played at Mauna Lani in 1992.

The pro game is now back around the world, even if Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Tennis Magazine’s print edition are not. And Novak Djokovic is actually smiling in Australia, where the year’s first major begins next week.

In Hawaii, after a couple years of finding new and often frustrating definitions for the word “flexible,” tournament and league tennis have also made their way back.

We even brought back a USTA National Junior Tournament in October — for its delayed 14th anniversary here — at Jarand M.Y. Iwase Central Oahu Regional Park. And there was an entertaining Waikiki Cup at Fort DeRussy last month, even with the biggest name — Kei Nishikori — reduced to umpiring because of injury.

Somewhat surprisingly, the most compelling problem now for the local game is finding enough courts for all the folks playing.

Like golf, tennis boomed the past few years, in large part because of its outdoor appeal and a design that pretty much keeps everybody at least — as this sport describes it — “Federer-distance” apart (he is 6 feet 1).

The Physical Activity Council’s annual participation report, which surveyed 120 sports, ranked tennis as the fourth-fastest growing in 2022, with 22.6 million players. Ironically, it was followed by pickleball — which often shares its courts and rose to 4.9 million players nationwide.

PAC says tennis added almost 5 million players the previous three years. Locally, those numbers are backed up most brightly by the USTA Hawaii Pacific Section’s Play and Learn Program.

The low-cost series for kids and adults provides group introductory classes at 18 locations on all major islands. It was averaging about 8,000 new players a year before dropping early in the pandemic. Last year, it nearly hit 9,000 — most since the program started 21 years ago.

“Even during Covid, when everything was shut down, even the public parks, we had two sites we managed — Alohilani and Hawaii Prince — and the numbers just kept going up,” USTA Hawaii Pacific Section Executive Director Ron Romano says. “There was demand to play. And, even though it’s a Play and Learn program — an introduction, cardio tennis, drill sessions — the advanced players in it usually have their own group every week. Some people just keep signing up. It’s like their weekly tennis group.”

Now, where are they all going to play?

USTA Hawaii has been saving and fundraising to build its own tennis complex, with at least 10 courts, an office, clubhouse and parking.

The complex could have tournaments every weekend, a tennis academy and Play and Learn daily. It could help bring professional events back, including the Fed Cup — played in Kona (with Venus Williams) and Kaanapali in 2016 and 2017 — and Davis Cup. Those international team events have been gone so long they now have new names (Billie Jean King Cup and World Cup) and formats.

Romano is looking to create a layout, which would be designed by the USTA, that has space for a flexible stadium court that can bring in bleachers for up to 2,000.

The section has looked at nearly 25 possible sites the last few years, but nothing has worked out. The time might be now, with last year’s U.S. Open setting records in part because of Serena Williams’ retirement. Open revenue provides most of the funding for the USTA’s 17 sections.

Two names stand out in Hawaii tennis 2022, one whose gifted game keeps soaring and another who left us far too soon.

Yu-Hsien “Mimi” Kennell, USTA Hawaii’s beloved Director of Junior Tennis for 16 years, died of a rare form of cancer in November at age 48.

Kennell came here from Taiwan — she was the No. 1 junior player — and the WTA Tour to play for BYU-Hawaii. She was on the 1997 NCAA D-II National Championship team and coached at Kamehameha, ‘Iolani and Pearl Harbor.

Romano believes Kennell impacted “thousands of kids,” which had a huge impact on Hawaii tennis over the years. She was a gifted instructor but, even more, Kennell was remarkably kind and patient.

“Everybody liked her,” Romano says. “She had this personality that attracted people to her — a likability factor that’s very hard to find. The person in her position before was (Hawaii Tennis Hall of Famer) Betsy Somerville and Betsy had a wonderful personality. We all loved her. We were struggling to find somebody like that and Mimi was so similar to Betsy. Everybody loved her too. That’s hard to find.”

Kennell leaves behind husband Sheldon, Tennis Director at the Oahu Club, and son Jaden. Friends have a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses.

Oceane Adam started as the new Director of Junior Tennis this month and also worked for Play and Learn and Kailua Racquet Club. Originally from the French West Indies, she helped Hawaii Pacific win a PacWest tennis championship and played on the ITF and WTA tours.

Finally, Andre Ilagan hasn’t slowed since winning two state high school championships at Farrington. He and partner Azuma Visaya captured the 50th Kailua Racquet Club Night Doubles championship after Ilagan became the second University of Hawaii player to qualify for an NCAA Singles Championship. Last fall, he reached the quarterfinals of the ITA Southwest Regional.

Ilagan enters his senior season, which began last week, ranked 41st in the country. His team earned an ITA ranking for the first time in a decade last season, reaching as high as 64th, and he also graduated with a degree in finance.

At the end of the season, Ilagan was named Big West Player of the Year, earned first-team honors in singles and doubles for the second straight year and won the Bonham Award, UH’s highest athletic honor.