Top 2 seeds in
doubles final
Before they go to work for rival colleges in the fall, Ikaika Jobe and Bradley Lum-Tucker are hoping to earn a championship on the same side of the net this summer.
Jobe will enroll at Boise State for his senior season this year, while Lum-Tucker just completed his college tennis career at Idaho and is planning to return as an assistant coach with the Vandals.
Although they'll soon be on opposite ends of a fierce in-state rivalry, Jobe and Lum-Tucker are teaming up one more time for a shot at the Kailua Racquet Club Men's Night Doubles crown.
"Ikaika and I have grown up playing in the juniors. We get along really well and we'd love to win it together," Lum-Tucker said. "It's pretty much the biggest part of my summer."
Jobe and Lum-Tucker reached the final of the 34th annual event with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Brigham Young-Hawaii alums Wei-Yu Su and Hong Tae Kim last night at KRC.
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The second-seeded team in the tournament will face top seeded and defending champions Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen in tonight's championship match, scheduled to start at 6.
Jobe and Lum-Tucker won state high school championships at Punahou and Kauai, respectively, and are playing in their fourth Night Doubles tournament. They reached the final two years ago as qualifiers and advanced to the semifinals last year.
Jobe, who is transferring to Boise State from St. Louis University, and Lum-Tucker don't get to play together often, but they've found their rhythm over the course of the tournament and have yet to drop a set.
"It takes a little while to get that connection with each other," Jobe said. "I feel pretty comfortable (going into the final). I thought these guys were pretty tough -- lefty serves are always tough. But we did pretty good with our returns and I'm pretty confident."
The teams traded five service breaks in the first set, the last giving Jobe and Lum-Tucker a 5-3 lead. Jobe, the only player who didn't have his serve broken in the match, then closed out the set by holding serve.
"There were a lot of breaks of serve and it took a while to get into the rhythm of the match," Lum-Tucker said. "I'm glad I'm on (Jobe's) side. He has probably one of the biggest serves in the state."
Said Su: "His speed is OK, but the spin and the placement make it really tough."
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As solid as Jobe was from the service line, it was the duo's return of serve that allowed Jobe and Lum-Tucker to pull away from Kim and Su in the second set. They forced the action throughout the match and went up a break of Kim's serve early in the set and took a 5-2 advantage with another break.
"They got most of the big points and they played pretty aggressive," said Su, an assistant coach at BYUH. "They both served well and they don't give away a lot of points. They have a good shot to win the tournament.
"They both have a pretty good return. That's all you need for doubles, a good return of serve and you'll be in pretty good shape."
Bruggemann and Chen earned a shot at a second straight title with a 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory over fourth-seeded Stefan Pampulov and Jan Axel Tribler in the night's second semifinal.
After winning the first set, the defending champions rallied from a 3-0 second-set deficit to win the match in a tiebreaker.
Down 5-3, Bruggemann and Chen fought off two set points before coming up with a break of Tribler's serve and tied the set at 5-5 on Chen's serve.
The teams then held serve to force the tiebreaker. Bruggemann-Chen went up 6-4, but Pampulov and Tribler survived two match points to knot the score. Chen gave his team the lead with a backhand return down the line and ended the match with a smash of a soft return of Bruggemann's serve.
