KOHALA COAST, Hawai'i – No. 5 Hawai'i Pacific University opened the 2021 Men's Tennis season by splitting a pair of matches on Sunday at the Fairmont Orchid Tennis Center.
 
The Sharks (1-1) fell to the Vulcans (1-1) in the first match 5-2, but came back to win the nightcap 4-2.
 
The in the first match of the double header, the Vulcans claimed the doubles point by winning the first and third position, with Martin Soukal and Alessio DeMichelis beating HPU's James Hartson and Matej Panik 6-3, while Chun En Wu and Joshua Liu won in a tiebreaker over the Sharks Cheng-Chieh Wang and Kilian Maitre 7-6 (8-6). HPU won at No. 2 doubles with Benjamin Loccisano and Ryohei Arai beating Luca Checchia and Santiago Di Loreto 6-4.
 
Then UHH took the top four singles spots to win the match. At No. 1 Loccisano fell to Soukal 4-6, 1-6, as Panik dropped a 4-6, 3-6 decision at No. 2. The No. 3 spot saw Maitre fall to Checchia 3-6, 4-6, and Arai lost to En Wu 6-7 (2-7), 2-6 at No. 4. HPU won the bottom two positions with Felix Eining beating Liu 6-4, 6-2 at No. 5, and Hartson defeating Di Loreto 6-2, 7-5.
 
The Sharks reversed their fortunes in the second match of the day.
 
HPU won the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3, with the No. 2 spot unfinished. Panik/Hartson beat Soukal/DeMichelis 7-5 in the top spot just before Maitre/Eining downed En Wu/Liu 6-4 at No. 3. Loccisano/Arai and Checchia/Di Loreto were tied at 5-5 when the point was won by the Sharks.
 
HPU clinched the match by winning the bottom two positions in singles.
 
UH Hilo took an early lead by winning the top two spots with Soukal winning over Panik 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1, and DeMichelis winning Arai 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2. HPU came back with a win at No. 4 with Maitre beating En Wu 6-1, 6-3. Hartson pulled out a win at No. 5 over Liu 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), then clinched the match with a split set victory at No. 6 as Wang outlasted Luca Matheowetz 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. The No. 3 position went unfinished as Eining and Checchia were locked in a split set battle 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 4-4 when the Sharks won the match.
 
The matches were the first team matches of the season for both HPU and UH Hilo.