Top Teams Return For Kailua Men’s Tennis Tourney

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Although a fan-friendly atmosphere has always prevailed at the Blue Moon Kailua Racquet Club’s Men’s Nights Doubles Tournament, the event owes its popularity to the field of players, to hear Bruce Nagel tell it.

“The quality of players has been improving every year,” said Nagel, who is the tournament’s director. “The players are tougher and tougher - the top teams are really tough to compete against,” said Nagel, tournament director. “The players are tougher and tougher - the top teams are really tough to compete against - and there’s a lot of attraction for the local players. For a third of the teams entered in the tournament, this is the only event they play in all year. They practice (specifically) for it.”

Nagel, who has been associated with the tournament for 20 years, including the last 16 as its director, may have assembled his best field yet this year, with a number of previous winners back in the fold to compete for $7,000 in prize money. The tournament is in its 37th year.

“This is one of the first times in years that we have a lot of (the top) teams returning,” said Nagel. “We have both the winners and the runner-up from last year as well as the championship team from 2003 and 2005.”

As in past years, the Men’s Nights Doubles Tournament, which will run Sunday through Aug. 4, will showcase some of the top current and former college players with ties to Hawaii, highlighted by the tandem of Mihn Le and Wei-Yu Su. The pair outlasted the team of Mikael Maata and Jan Axel Tribler in three sets in last year’s final and were expected to receive the top seed when the pairings for the tournament were finalized. Su is a former Brigham Young-Hawaii standout.

Maata and Tribler, who hail from Libkoping, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, respectively, are former Hawaii Pacific players and were expected to receive the tournament’s second seed.

Also considered among the favorites are former Santa Clara standouts Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen. The pair have a 13-2 all-time record at the tournament, having won both the 2003 and 2005 events. Bruggemann grew up on the East side and attended Punahou.

The team of Bradley Lum-Tucker and Jesse Paer could also be a factor in the tournament. Lum-Tucker, who was raised on Kauai, played collegiately at the University of Idaho, while Paer attended Punahou and played his college tennis at Dartmouth.

The Blue Moon Men’s Nights Doubles Tournament is free to the public and offers thousands of dollars in door prizes in addition to the selection of food and beverages. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs,Windward Clubhouse. In all, 42 doubles teams will take part in the event, which has drawn as much praise in recent years for the venue itself as it has for its stellar field of players. Situated at 629 Oneawa St. in a residential neighborhood, the Kailua Racquet Club offers an idyllic backdrop, especially at night under the lights.

“It’s always been a combination of great tennis and a lot of fun things to go with it,” Nagel said. “Part of (the tournament’s large appeal) is that you get to see really good tennis up close.At the major tournaments, you’re sitting 30 to 40 yards away at least, so you don’t get to see it from the perspective you get to see it from here.”

Matches will be held nightly at 6 and 7:15. The semifinals are set for Thursday,Aug. 2, with the finals to follow Saturday, Aug. 4.