PO‘IPU — Kaua‘i tennis doubles players will hit the courts at the Kiahuna Tennis Club this weekend. Tom Edlefsen, one of the managers for the facility, said this is one of the first of a series of tournaments Kiahuna Tennis
PO‘IPU — Kaua‘i tennis doubles players will hit the courts at the Kiahuna Tennis Club this weekend.
Tom Edlefsen, one of the managers for the facility, said this is one of the first of a series of tournaments Kiahuna Tennis Club plans on hosting for local players.
“For a while, it looked like we might not have the tournament,” Edlefsen, a former U.S. Davis Cup player, said. “When we started registering, we got 20 people. But slowly the field grew, and now, we’ve got more than 110 players who will take the court.”
Edlefsen, an Intercollegiate Tennis Association Hall of Fame player, said the staff at Kiahuna Tennis Club was inspired by players who having been playing tennis on Kaua‘i for many years.
“They told us Kaua‘i used to have local open tournaments, but those have since disappeared,” Edlefsen said. “People like Herb Noe and Bernie Duarte said ‘it would be nice if tournaments like that started up, again.’ There is a real need for these kinds of tournament.”
Play will start tomorrow in the tournament that will feature Mens Doubles, Womens Doubles and Mixed Doubles with A, B, and C divisions, Edlefsen said. Finals will take place Sunday.
He said the Kiahuna Tennis Club plans to offer about four of these types of tournaments per year, depending on the success of this initial tournament.
According to the Inside Tennis, May 2006 Web site, Edlefsen joins Dennis Ralston, Rafael Osuna, Ramsey Earnhart and Bill Bond as part of the 1963 USC Mens team that the Web site declares as the No. 1 of the Top 10 All-Time NCAA Men’s and Women’s Team.
This squad was inducted into the ITA Hall of Fame.
Former Stanford captain Dick Gould said in the Web site, “That was the best team of all time. You’ve got a couple of Grand Slam champions. You’ve got Wimbledon doubles champs. You’ve got three guys who were in the top 10 in the U.S. They were in a class by themselves.”
For more information on the local Doubles Open tournament, call Kiahuna at 742-9533.
