PO‘IPU — Coach Shannon Burkman shuffled the field of youth tennis players and came up with mostly doubles matches Saturday during the Kaua‘i Youth Tennis Tournament contested under federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at the Po‘ipu Kai tennis courts.
The resulting field produced long matches that teased the court deadlines because of their competitiveness.
Kaua‘i Youth Tennis tournaments feature students who would normally be playing for the high schools, as well as recent high school graduates.
“It was so wonderful to see the players out enjoying competition and camaraderie at another great tournament,” said Burkman. “They all played so hard and had such positive attitudes. We (the coaches) were all so impressed by the high levels of play and the very competitive matches.”
Team B lost two of the three singles matches, but came back to win five of six doubles matches to edge out Team A, 6-4 when the dust settled on the courts that provided diners at Kalapaki Joe’s preferred seating on the highlight matches, including the doubles that separated the Fitzgerald twins into competitive sides.
Michael Fitzgerald teamed with Mitchell Evans to get past his brother Mark Fitzgerald and Lucas Weston-Webb, 6-2, 6-2, in one of the Team B victories.
Maddison Hubbard and Savannah Hubbard paired to get past the team of Ava Anderton and Jeanine Longboy, 6-4, 6-3, and a mixed team of Island School’s Reed Brown teamed with Dillon Fulks of Kaua‘i High School to best another mixed duo, Vito Altomare of Waimea High School and Cameron Teves of Kaua‘i High School, 7-5, 6-3.
Katie Brown defeated Brooklyn Mackey, 6-2, 6-4.
A battle among Kaua‘i High schoolmates saw Joe Puplava team with Nick Badua to get past Matthew Rivera and Gian Panoy, 6-4, 6-3, and it took three sets for the Kaua‘i team of Tanner Hubbard and Christian Teves to get past the duo of Dwayne Ancajas and Judah Sapp, 6-2, 4-6, 12-10.
Team A took two of the three tie-breaking matches, including having Ryder Kenton of the Kaua‘i Christian Academy getting past Ryan So, one of the youngest players on the court, 6-7, 6-3, 10-8.
The second tie-breaking win came when the duo of Zoe Carvalho and Margarita Moronzova got past the pair of Bonnie Lee and Parker Reed, 5-7, 6-3, 10-7.
Katherine O’Neill partnered with Kamalani Goo to outlast the duo of Kirra Carvalho and Hoku Iseri, 6-1, 7-5
In the final matchup of the day, Waimea graduate Leslie Uri was a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Grace Aguilera.
“Many thanks to all those who made this possible,” Burkman said. “Po‘ipu Kai for the use of the courts, the Kaua‘i Community Tennis Organization for subsidizing the court fees, coach Aaron Tada of Po‘ipu Kai for providing match tennis balls and awards, and the Kaua‘i Junior Tennis Association for generously donating funding for player gifts.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
