Play professional tennis and see the world. Play Honolulu Futures and see your friend or neighbor.

Tennis players from all over the world are at the University of Hawai'i this week for Honolulu's U.S. Tennis Association Pro Circuit event. In a strange-but-true twist, two first-round matches feature an all-Hawai'i cast.

Yesterday, Rainbow sophomore Sascha Heinemann, the 2006 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year, defeated 'Aiea's Dennis Lajola, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. Lajola, 17, is ranked 47th internationally in Boys 18s.

A few months ago, Lajola and brother Derrick, a UH senior, were learning the basics of bratwurst from Heinemann's mom near Frankfurt and watching World Cup soccer matches with Sascha and Roger Federer in a German hotel lobby.

The Lajolas and Heinemann became fast friends when he moved here last summer. "This match was real hard on my parents (Dado and Chato)," Derrick said. "Now they feel like Sascha is also their son."

It was a weird quirk in the $15,000 event that will be repeated to a lesser degree today, when Honolulu's Chris Lam takes on Kaua'i's Brad Lum-Tucker at 10 a.m.

The odds of a Hawai'i foursome finding each other in the first round are astronomical. The odds of one winning here might be as high. Israel's Dudi Sela, the world's 263rd-ranked player, is the top seed and won last week's Waikoloa Futures.

Winning is not necessarily the point at this age or stage. Dennis Lajola has been training on the Mainland and working with U.S. High Performance programs since he was a freshman. He reached the quarterfinals in doubles this year at the Wimbledon juniors, after training two weeks in Germany with his brother and Heinemann.

"We had a great summer, a troublesome summer," Derrick said, grinning. "It was nice on the other side of the world. Sascha always criticizes my side. I was able to return the favor. But really, I loved it, it was awesome."

Dennis Lajola started slow yesterday, missing enough to have his first two serves broken. Lajola found his rhythm in the second set, but fell behind the relentless Heinemann — "he never misses" — 4-2 in the third.

Lajola missed an overhead at break point there and Heinemann served it out. The German has lost just once on the UH courts, a year ago in the second round to Wayne Odesnik, who swept both Hawai'i Futures titles. He knows Lajola's game much better, and has for more than a year.

"Dennis did the right things in the second and third sets," Heinemann said. "What he did was actually better than what I did. He kept attacking. He missed a couple, but didn't give it up and just push it back in and let me in the game more. He kept attacking."

NOTES

The inaugural $50,000 Wailea Challenger begins Nov. 27. Players entered include Mark Philippoussis, Paul Goldstein, Kevin Kim, Andrei Pavel and Jan-Michael Gambill.

The UH men and women close their fall season against perennial power Stanford Tuesday at Wailea.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.