HAWAII-PACIFIC TENNIS FOUNDATION
Events & News
America's James Blake Wins 2002 Hilton Waikoloa Village USTA Challenger: Volunteers Continue Strong
Third time is the charm for James Blake as
he emerged the champion in his third Hilton Waikoloa final as the Davis
Cup team member vanquished the Netherland's Martin Verkerk, 6-3, 6-2.
Blake lost in the finals two years ago to Paul Goldstein and last year ran into
junior phenom Andy Roddick.
The quality of tennis was impressive as even veteran and crowd favorite Michael Chang competed. Chang lost to Vincent Spadea in the quarterfinals after winning two great matches over Kevin Kim and Alex Kim respectively.
In addition to Alex Kim, who came from Australia with an impressive victory over Yvegny Kafelnikov, the Challenger also featured perhaps the coming out of rising American junior star Robbie Ginepri. Ginepri's power game and footspeed carried him to the semi-finals, where he fell to Martin Verkerk who also prevailed earlier over Michael Russell, a tough no nonsense fighting young American.
Once again, the
Foundation staffed the tournament with hard working, responsible and
competent volunteers who often went beyond the call. Volunteers
performed almost every duty from keeping ice on the courts to collecting
tickets to even serving as ball persons. The event could not have run
without the following volunteers:
Jackie Baydo
Mark Beede
David Berman
Sonny Crawford
Robert Donigan
Hermann Fernandez
Mae Fujimoto
Jo Jo Gittelman
Carolyn Goff
Carolyn Hagen
Jennifer Hindle
Bonnie Hoffman
Kathy Johnson
Jon Katada
Barbara Kennedy
Sharon Kosecki
Phil Lampe
Derby Linden
Linda Marquis
Steve Marquis
Joan McCarty
Sandy Moberly
Diana Nui
Sets Okuda
Ludwig Pfleger
Brian Shea
Lynda Oyemoto
David Vernon
Lisa Vernon
Susan Welton
Fedro Yanez
Colin Young
Sonny Crawford took over charge of the ball persons and did well, pulling in teams from Waipahu and Kohala High Schools as well as Mid-Pacific Institute. As always, the tournament provided a great opportunity for our kids to see and experience excellence in action.
We also saw three Foundation trained officials work side by side with some of the world's best linespersons and umpires. John Bennet, Myrah Kim and Alex Smith continue to impress as they develop their new skills. Watch out, we just might see them at the US Open any year now!
