Rosenberg, Magee Win Masters
October 28th, 2009 by Leilani Magee
Leilani Magee, Leo Rosenberg
Hawaii Kai - UH Warrior, Leo Rosenberg's game rose above 48 others in the Men's Open Singles draw and Leilani Magee emerged from a draw of six women and feisty women-in-the-making. The finals drew a crowd of mostly Oahu Club members, and finished within minutes of each other. The audience camped out on the shady hillside, straddling above the two front courts of The Oahu Club.
Leo Rosenberg
Rosenberg's win is a repeat of last year's Waikoloa Wildcard tournament where he secured passage to the Waikoloa Futures main draw. This year, what used to be three Pro Circuit events has been consolidated into one of greater value in terms of points and prize money, in January. No more Waikoloa, no more Futures. The Hawaii Pro Circuit experience has morphed into one Challenger event and moved to CORP on Oahu.
Rosenberg, Luedi
Regardless of the changes, Rosenberg did it again, this time defeating last year's Honolulu Masters runner up, Daniel Luedi (HPU) 6-4, 6-3 in Rosenberg's 5th round of the tourney. The reward, a shiny hefty trophy and more importantly, the coveted wildcard berth in the main draw of the Honolulu Challenger coming up in January. Challengers are a step up from Futures events, attracting players in the top 200s in the world. Though an enviable spot to earn, Rosenberg commented he would be equally glad to play the qualies, gaining invaluable match play experience.
Magee
Shana Peete with Henry Somerville
In the Women's draw, Leilani Magee prevailed over 5 the draw of 6 and continued her two year women's open singles winning streak by defeating Punahou's Scout Shutter in the semis and local lawyer and runway model, Shana Peete 6-3, 6-4 in the final.
Andrea Hermansen, Julia Weisel, Leilani Magee, Audra Takara
Julia Weisel and Andrea Hermansen won the Women's Open Doubles final over Leilani Magee and Audra Takara (1) . Magee rolled an ankle in the singles final and withdrew from the doubles, noting she regretted missing the chance to play against up and comer Maui junior, Julia Weisel of Paia, ranked in the top 100 in the nation (G14s) and Andrea Hermansen of HPU. Julia, sporting artsy adidas fashion found a strong partner in Dane, Andrea Hermansen, childhood friend of Jan Axel Tribler. In juniors, Jan and Andrea played on the same junior team tennis team in Denmark. Andrea is finishing up a masters degree at HPU in business and soon leaves for London where a sports management traineeship with Octagon awaits. Before departing Hawaii, she partners with Drajika "Dada" Joksimovic in the Kailua Racquet Club Women's Night Doubles.
Club pros and tournament hosts, Henry Somerville and James Jensen won in a four team draw, defeating Jody Boeringa and Mika Maatta 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the final.
Historically, the Honolulu Masters has been dominated by HPU players, both men and women. Perhaps the first year it was held at The Oahu Club was in 2007 when the men's and women's draws were virtually an HPU in house scrimmage. Hendrik Bode def. Nicola Petrov for the men's title and Nina Mihova beat her sister, Tinka for the women's.
Last year in 2008, it was Bode again who defeated Luedi 2 and 3 which makes Luedi a two time finalist in recent years to different opponents.
En route to the final in 2009 Luedi had wins over UH Warrior, Jeremy Tweedt who won two rounds against UH team mates before bowing out. Many say Tweedt's best tennis is somewhere in the Hawaiian pipeline so stay tuned. Luedi lost the first set to Mika Maatta 5-7 and was up in the second at 4-3 when Mika had to withdraw due to injury. This occurred in the wake of his long time doubles partner Jan's recent shoulder injury. After a couple of wins at the Men's Night Doubles and the Grollman tourney, Ikaika Jobe, volunteer coach of the Men's Team and now UH first year Law student succumbed to Sebastian Bader in the quarters 6 and 3.
Overall, this year's tourney was an improvement from last year's in terms of numbers. Where there were 16 men and 1 woman entrant (Gabi Gorrence was the only female entered. There ended up being no draw) in 2008, in 2009 there were 43 men and 9 women, a 66% increase.
