No one is quite sure if the Blue Moon Men's Night Doubles tournament has thrived at Kailua Racquet Club for 38 years because Hawai'i is starving to watch good tennis or because Hawai'i is simply starving.

The tournament has always drawn the sport's largest crowds here, usually cramming close to 1,000 into the cozy club to eat, drink and be very entertained the final night. More surprising are the crowds leading up to this year's championship, scheduled for Saturday.

Last week's qualifying matches drew unusually high crowds, with players backed by packs of fans. Signs waved and spectators did the wave. KRC pro Jared Carstenn was inspired by some 30 of his best friends in his opening round match.

Derek Morrison, a new KRC pro, wondered out loud if he had stumbled into a raucous Davis Cup during his first match. "All that's missing is the continuity and the areas people are from," Morrison said. "All the players are from the U.S., but it has that Davis Cup-feeling of people rooting for you or against you."

The Murakami brothers — Andrew and Ryan — brought their own posse, as did Alvin Stephenson and Richard Gregory. A few follow tennis, but all follow their friends and found Night Doubles a nice weeknight outlet with a decidedly weekend atmosphere. Fans can pick up dinner and drinks after work and watch what has become the state's best spectator tennis.

"The majority of the fans are players or are interested in tennis, but there's definitely a vast number who just come out for fun," Morrison said. "They may not know how to keep score or the rules of tennis, but it's fun and exciting. The thing about doubles is it's quick. There are a lot of fast points and the ball is moving fast. People like that."

It is not all hit — really hard — and giggle. The tournament shares proceeds with a local charity; Boys and Girls Club of Hawai'i, Windward Clubhouse, is the beneficiary this year. And 2008 has also had it share of heartache, with players dedicating matches to the memory of Sean Koahou and other players battling illness.

Former Hawai'i Pacific All-Americans Jan Axel Tribler and Mikael Maatta always draw a loyal following and they haven't even served yet. The main draw starts tonight with top-seeded Minh Le and Wei-Yu Su attempting to become only the second team to three-peat at Night Doubles. Tribler and Maatta fell to Le and Su the past two finals, which both went the limit. They are seeded second.

Nearly 90 players entered this year — including Manoa Cup champ Alex Ching, who showed up to play his "second sport" with partner David Lam. The field is littered with current and former collegiate players and a few with world rankings, like Ikaika Jobe (921) and partner Bryan Wooten (1,286).

The last eight teams standing in the qualifier fill the main draw against eight seeded teams. Of those top eight, half are back from last year. Three others include former champions.

One is Jobe, the 2001 state high school champ for Punahou who won here four years ago with 2000 state high school champ Bradley Lum-Tucker. Jobe has been on the pro circuit the past three years. This week his partner is Wooten, a former all-Big 12 player. They are seeded third.

Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen, former teammates at Santa Clara, won here in 2003 and 2005 and all it got them was a No. 4 seed. Lum-Tucker, from Kaua'i, is fifth with Jesse Paer. The sixth-seeded team is Henry Somerville, who won four Night Doubles titles with twin brother Jim, and Stefan Pampulov. The former and current HPU coaches lost to Ryan Ideta and Alex Sugai in the 1999 final.

The youngest seeded team — at No. 7 — is two-time state high school champ Mike Lim and Thomas Shubert, who played No. 2 at Brigham Young last season as a freshman. The eighth-seeded team is University of San Francisco assistant coach Bill Ball and 'Iolani graduate Torin Ching, who plays for the Dons.

The level of play is probably equal to Division I tennis, because so many of the players came from that background, and their game elevates as the crowd grows.

"For a lot of people, this will be the best live tennis they have ever seen," Carstenn said. "I know it's up there with some of the best I've ever seen."

He has worked in the tennis industry for a decade, here and in Florida, and called his first experience playing Night Doubles four years ago the "single most influential tennis experience I've ever had."

"It was the most fun I've ever had playing tennis," Carstenn said. "I couldn't believe this big crowd, couldn't believe there were so many teams. It was the most positive, fun energy I've ever had in tennis in my life."

He doesn't think it would work nearly as well on the Mainland and wonders if even taking it out of Kailua would alter the atmosphere dramatically. He doesn't want to find out, nor does Corey Kincaid, who has been watching Night Doubles since he was a 12-year-old junior member. He played for the first time five years later. Kincaid, 33, returned to Hawai'i two years ago after living on the Mainland. This was his fifth Night Doubles and he believes the tournament's history, its pau hana placement, and its fun-loving atmosphere make it unique, and appealing to much more than "just huge tennis fans."

"It is just as exciting as a player as it was as a fan," Kincaid said. "It's a ton of fun to play in front of all those people. ... The crowd definitely helps people play more seriously and usually elevates your game."

And the fans eat and drink their way through the matches. It has worked exceptionally well for 38 years.