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Americans blow into quarterfinals at Waikoloa

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii >> Ally Baker, Stephanie Hazlett, Jeff Morrison, Eric Taino and Russian-born Dmitry Tursunov -- hailed as the future of American tennis -- all survived strong Kohala tradewinds to blow into the quarterfinals of the 2004 Hilton Waikoloa Village USTA Challenger yesterday.

Tursunov, the only seed left in the men's draw, said the wind played a part in his 6-4, 6-7, (7-5), 6-3 win over Austrian Zbynek Mlynarik.

"In the first set I was just trying to keep the ball in the court and not go for anything big, especially with the weather," he said in a release. "When it's windy like this there is very little you can do."

But after watching the match from the stands, Hawaii football coach June Jones said Tursunov would be a good recruit for UH -- at linebacker.

"I'll consider it," Tursunov countered. "But without the net between me and my opponent and no rackets to throw, I'm not sure how well I would do."

Brazil's Bruno Soares, Germany's Bjorn Phau, Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu, Norway's Jan Frode Andersen and Columbia's Alejandro Falla also advanced in men's singles. Jane O'Donoghue of Great Britain, Melinda Czink of Hungary, Selima Sfar of Tunisia, Maria Salerni of Italy and Catalina Castano of Columbia also remain in the women's field.

"Today it wasn't really about tennis," Baker said. "It was about who dealt with the conditions better."

Rainbow Wahine win spring tennis opener

LOS GATOS, Calif. >> The Hawaii women's tennis team shut out Western Athletic Conference foe San Jose State yesterday as the Rainbow Wahine opened their spring season.

Hawaii's Lauren Fitzgerald led the charge with a win at No. 1 singles and No. 6 Kimberly Curtis' 6-0, 6-0 win made it a clean sweep. Sylvia Jaros, Justine Boutet, Paige Mainor and Renata Camargo also won singles matches for the Wahine.

Jaros-Boutet, Fitzgerald-Mainor and Camargo-Curtis also swept the three doubles matches for UH. Hawaii plays at Stanford today.

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