2015 USTA Hawaii Pacific Yearbook | Page 29

2014 Royal Lahaina Challenger 2014 Royal Lahaina Challenger Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch | Lahaina, Hawaii January 19 - 26, 2014 The 2014 Royal Lahaina Challenger, played at the Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch had a great showing of world-class tennis. Players from countries across the world competed at this $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament. The USTA Hawaii Pacific Section is the only section in the nation to host and fully run a Pro Circuit event. The seven-day tournament had draws for both Singles and Doubles and is Hawaii’s only men’s professional tennis event. Title sponsor, American Saving’s Bank, has been the top-level sponsor for the past five years and continues to be a supportive partner of the tournament. Thanks to the sponsorship from Kahiau: A Tennis Foundation, the tournament also saw huge success in its School’s Day, where over 100 kids took a field trip to the Challenger and got to learn tennis from some of the competing pros as well as spend some time for Q&A. This was a prime example of bringing School’s Tennis to its highest excellence. Coverage of the event was ever present, with daily stories in the Maui News, stories in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, Maui Now, Tennis World, the ATP, and even ESPN. The tournament had successful promotion through various radio, print, and television sources. The event was also covered via live web streaming so that anyone across the world who has access to Internet could view the event. Analytics showed over 65,000 unique viewers who watched the online streaming. Bradley Klahn - Singles Champion (left), Tsung-Hua Yang - Singles Finalist (right) Bradley Klahn, No. 93 player in the ATP world rankings, beat Tsung-Hua Yang 6-2, 6-3 for the title in the Royal Lahaina Challenger at the Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch in front of about 500 fans at the stadium court. Klahn finished off Yang, a former doubles partner, in 57 minutes, and won $7,200 of the $50,000 purse. Yang, ranked 274th, beat fourth-seeded Jack Sock in the opening round and second-seeded Tim Smyczek in the semifinals, after a three-set quarterfinal. He won $4,240. Klahn did not lose a set in singles in the event. Bradley Klahn 2014 Singles Champion Denis Kudla & Yasutaka Uchiyama 2014 Doubles Champions Tsung-Hua Yang 2014 Singles Finalist Daniel Kosakowski & Nicolas Meister 2014 Doubles Finalists Hawaii Pacific Yearbook 2015 27