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by Christopher Gerby A large, early-arriving crowd attended Wednesday night's match between the Schenectady County Electrics and Delaware Smash...and it probably wasn't because ex-Electric Geoff Grant was making his return to Central Park. Reigning U.S. Open champ Serena Williams, playing her second Team Tennis match for the Smash, was the big draw. Enough of a draw to fill nearly all of the stadium's 2400 seats, despite a major bump in ticket prices. (Even the worst seat in the house ran $28, up from just $11 on Monday night.) The fans were generally supporting the home team, but the largest ovations were reserved for Williams. First set -- men's doubles: Haygarth/Hill vs. Grant/Sell The Electrics chose to put Serena on ice for a while by opting to play the men's events first. The pressure was on Brent Haygarth and Michael Hill to give their team an early lead by overcoming Americans Geoff Grant and Michael Sell. The set's first four games went by in a blur, with just one point going against serve. Hill was the star of the fifth game, hitting a beautiful backhand volley winner and a game-clinching ace. He was just as impressive in the following game, a love break of Sell which ended when Hill ripped a forehand winner down the line. With a 4-2 lead in hand, Haygarth served for the set and made short work of it, holding at 15 when a Grant backhand found the net. The "build up an early lead against Serena" strategy paid off in a handy 5-2 win for Haygarth and Hill. OVERALL SCORE: ELECTRICS 5, SMASH 2 For much of the evening (except when he was playing), Geoff Grant could be seen operating a little hand-held video camera. He even had it pointed at teammate Serena Williams for a while and seemed to be interviewing her. I assumed this was for the documentary film Grant and fellow journeyman Mark Keil have been making about life on the tennis circuit. However, when I asked Geoff about it after the match, he said, "This is, like, a separate project that I'm doing for World Team Tennis. I'm just doing it, but it might end up making it in the movie. It might not. I'm still working on that." Despite playing some memorable matches over the course of his career (including a five set thriller with Gustavo Kuerten at the '97 US Open), Grant retired from the ATP Tour in February. I asked if a good showing this month might compel him to make a comeback, but the redhead was steadfast. "No, I'm done after this. I want to work on stuff like this," he said, pointing at his camcorder. "It would be fun to try to be a producer. I'd like to try to do that: director/producer." Second set -- men's singles: Michael Hill vs. Mike Sell If any of the fans wanted to "be like Mike," they could double their pleasure in the second set. Australian doubles specialist Mike Hill took on Mike Sell, a New Jersey native who's a perennial fan favorite at the U.S. Open. After being forced into a conservative, counterpunching style on Monday night, Hill was more aggressive against Sell, following many of his big serves into the net. Sell was serving pretty well himself and the games went with serve to 3-all. Hill grabbed a 15-30 lead in Game 7, but eventually lost it by chipping a backhand over the baseline. Delaware coach Brad Dancer ran out to Sell following the game and advised him to keep playing to Hill's backhand. At 15-15, Sell scrambled up to a Hill drop shot and hit a brilliant forehand winner down the line. Sell's momentum carried him all the way to the Delware bench, where he got excited high-fives from Grant and Dancer. Hill managed to hold serve, though, sending the set into a tiebreak. A pair of backhand errors put Sell down two mini-breaks. Hill waved his arms, getting the crowd behind him before extending the lead to 4-0 with a winning volley and an ace. Sell fought off the first set point, but then put a lunging forehand into the net. After losing a tough tiebreak on Monday night, Hill took this one 5-1 to extend his team's lead. OVERALL SCORE: ELECTRICS 10, SMASH 6 Third set -- mixed doubles: De Villiers/Haygarth vs. Williams/Grant Interesting as the men's singles set had been, a distinct buzz swept through the stands as Serena Williams began warming up for her first set of the night. Surely excited a bit herself was Nannie de Villiers, finally getting a chance to play Serena after coming up one round short a couple times in the past. Nannie has good chemistry with mixed partner Brent Haygarth: "I like playing with him. He's a nice guy. I understand him very well because he's South African as well." They looked comfortable early on, holding at 15 on a Haygarth ace. The following game was a surprising break of Grant, with Williams pushing a forehand volley wide to fall behind 0-2. After playing on a relatively slow court the previous night in Delaware, Serena seemed to be having trouble with the quick cement surface in Schenectady. She absolutely killed one service return in the following game, however, and teamed with Grant to break De Villiers. Williams overcame a double fault in Game 4 to even matters at 2-2. Serena grunted emphatically as she drilled a forehand return for a clean winner at 40-30 in Haygarth's second service game. Undeterred, De Villiers put away a forehand volley on game point for 3-2. Subsequent holds from Grant, De Villiers, and Williams brought up the night's second tiebreak at 4 games all. One ace from each man and one error from each woman made the 'breaker score 2-2. Grant netted a return for 2-3, but smacked a backhand pass for 3-3. The seventh point featured a long, great rally which ended when a swinging volley from Haygarth landed wide. Frustrated, Brent waited for the ball to come back and swiped at it with the handle of his racquet...unfortunately redirecting the ball right at a kneeling ball girl! He easily could have been assessed a set-ending point penalty, but umpire Candy Pantano gave him nothing more than a disapproving glare. Haygarth's teammate, Michael Hill, diffused the situation by hopping out of his seat, patting the ball girl on the back and kissing her knee (which was fortunately uninjured). It was still set point for the Smash, though, and Grant closed out the set with -- appropriately enough -- an overhead smash which sailed into the stands. Serena's first set of the night was a success, 5 points to 3 in the tiebreak. OVERALL SCORE: ELECTRICS 14, SMASH 11 World Team Tennis co-founder Billie Jean King stepped into the press seating area and ebulliently fielded questions for the entire 20-minute intermission. She was understandably excited about welcoming the Williams sisters into the Team Tennis fold this season. "It gets people of color out to watch, there's no question. It creates more diversity of our spectatorship and that's one of my goals." King had high praise for Serena in particular, referring to her as "someone who transcends sports... She likes to perform, she smiles, she has fun, she loves to be out there, she embraces the crowd, tries to sign all the autographs she can... It's amazing that Serena's only 18. She's very mature for 18." King's festive mood was interrupted only when I asked whether she'll be able to convince Serena's older sister to join the U.S. Olympic team in September. King paused before saying, "I've gotta make up my mind pretty soon. In fact, I've been talking to the USTA right now and trying to decide what the team is. Hopefully Venus will say she wants to go whether Serena goes or not." Overhearing all of this was the nation's 17th ranked woman, Tara Snyder. Presumably in town just in case the Smash needed an alternate, Snyder occupied a seat in the back of the press box for the entire match. As the intermission drew to a close and the reporters turned their attention back to the tennis, Tara approached King and jokingly asked, "How about Snyder for the Olympic team?" Billie Jean didn't recognize her at first and seemed completely confused, but she wound up staying and chatting with Snyder for the entire fourth set. I had flashbacks to the days of HBO's Wimbledon coverage as King kept up a running commentary throughout the women's singles bout. Fourth set -- women's singles: Nicole Pratt vs. Serena Williams Serena's second set of the night would be her third singles meeting with Nicole Pratt. Williams had won their previous encounters (at the '98 US Open and 2000 Australian Open), but struggled in the set's opening game, completely bricking an easy overhead at 30-30. She fought off the break point, however, and held for a 1-0 lead. Williams then battled back from a 40-0 deficit to break Pratt. Billie Jean King referred to Nicole as a "perfect player for Team Tennis -- so scrappy," but the Aussie was becoming more and more helpless as Serena adjusted to the court's quickness. Williams went up 3-0, holding at love with an ace. Pratt saved face by winning the next game, even screaming "Yeah, baby!" as she shook her fist. The surge of emotion was a case of too little too late. Williams clinched a 4-1 lead with another powerful ace. At 15-15 in Game 6, the Wimbledon semifinalist kicked into an even higher gear. She drilled a pair of cross-court winners and then sealed the 5-1 set with a winning backhand return. It was a genuinely impressive display from the world's #7 player, lopsided enough to give Delaware the lead. OVERALL SCORE: SMASH 16, ELECTRICS 15 Fifth set -- women's doubles: De Villiers/Pratt vs. De Swardt/Williams Coming off her high profile gig as Martina Navratilova's doubles partner throughout May and June, big-serving Mariaan de Swardt was keeping a decidedly low profile on Wednesday night. She finally saw her first action in the crucial fifth set and looked a tad rusty. On serve at 1-2, De Swardt faced a 15-40 deficit on her serve and immediately surrendered the break with a double fault. Schenectady had regained the overall lead and their women's doubles team was fired up in a major way. Nannie de Villiers ended the next game with an ace and pumped her fist while Nicole Pratt let loose with a celebratory yell. Trailing 1-4, Serena Williams was just one game away from her first WTT loss. Rather than go down without a fight, Williams played spectacularly in Game 5, recording an ace and two winning volleys in a love hold. Pratt still had an opportunity to serve the match out at 4-2, but she and De Villiers were simply overpowered and lost the game at 15. The Electrics kept on scrambling, but De Swardt and Williams had found the range and regained the momentum. Mariaan breezed through her second service game, tying the set at 4. Schenectady could tie the overall score by winning the fifth set tiebreak. However, De Swardt won the opening point with a forehand that was too much for Pratt to handle and then got another mini-break by ripping a backhand at De Villiers. Williams ran the lead to 4-0 with a pair of service winners. PA announcer "Dr. Sound" told the crowd "it's not over yet" and reminded the home players to "take it one point at a time." Alas, cliches would not be enough to turn away the Delaware Smash charge. Williams squandered the first match point by netting a backhand return, but Mariaan de Swardt clobbered an inside-out forehand pass at 4-1 to secure the victory. FINAL SCORE: SMASH 21, ELECTRICS 19 Serena Williams's first appearance in Schenectady had been -- no pun intended -- a smashing success. The fans had clearly enjoyed themselves and Williams herself was delighted. "I didn't expect to have so much fun. My teammates are so loving and caring and always looking out for each other... It took me a little while to get used to the hard court, but I love the grass and I love the hard courts. This is my surface. It only took me two seconds and I was OK." Nonetheless, it was a valiant effort from the underdog Electrics. "We were only a game from winning and we just couldn't, like, keep it together at the end," said Nicole Pratt. "That's the way it goes, but it's certainly exciting." |