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by Christopher Gerby Despite late afternoon rains that delayed the start of play for 35 minutes, a good-sized crowd attended Monday night's match between Schenectady and Hartford. After splitting their first two matches of the season, the Electrics dropped a pair on the road. They fell Friday in Idaho (on a "lightning fast" court, according to doubles specialist Brent Haygarth) and suffered a Saturday night loss in Sacramento which Haygarth admitted was "ugly." Aiming to give the team a shot in the arm was living legend Martina Navratilova, beginning her second season as a member of the Electrics. She was greeted with all the pomp you might expect, including an embarassingly drawn out introduction. Navratilova could only laugh and bury her head in her hands as team DJ/announcer "Dr. Sound" played the kind of music one would associate with the arrival of royalty. First set -- men's doubles: Haygarth/Hill vs. J Blake/M Jensen A pair of players who have fraternal links on the ATP Tour started Hartford's effort. James Blake (younger brother of Thomas) and Murphy Jensen (younger brother of Luke) took on Schenectady's Brent Haygarth and Michael Hill. The very first serve of the set -- delivered by Hill -- caught the net cord and trickled over for the kind of flukey ace you'll only see in Team Tennis. "Dr. Sound" declared it "a sign from above" and Hill went on to hold serve at love. The set continued on serve to 3-2, when Hill gave his team a 0-30 advantage with a backhand winner down the line. However, Blake won four service points in a row to save the game and tie the set. Game 7 went to deuce (which is a single winner-take-all "game point" in Team Tennis) and went to Schenectady on a winning Hill smash. "Here we go," Nannie de Villiers encouragingly shouted from the sidelines. Navratilova also chimed in with a "right here," reflecting her wish for a set-winning break of Jensen. The usually antic-prone Murphy had been quite subdued throughout the set, aside from his saying "Thanks, sweetie pie" a few times to one of the ball girls. He was playing pretty well and managed to roll through an easy hold to even the set at 4-4 and necessitate a tiebreak. However, that's when Mike Hill took over. The Aussie delivered an ace, a service winner, and a pair of winning volleys as Schenectady grabbed a 4-1 lead in the 'breaker. Facing several set points, Blake pushed a forehand return wide to seal the deal. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 5, HARTFORD 4 Second set -- men's singles: Michael Hill vs. James Blake After marking himself as a potential star during two seasons at Harvard, James Blake turned pro last year. Though his results have been spotty, he figured to be a slight favorite against Michael Hill. However, his struggles in the doubles tiebreak continued as the singles set began. Blake double faulted twice as he was broken at 15. Undeterred, the 20-year-old then got his flashy, appealing game on track. Blake reeled off four successful games in a row, ripping forehand winners while alternately chipping and coming over his one-handed backhand. Hill served well in a love hold for 2-4, but was looking relatively slow and mechanical compared to his younger opponent. Hill took Game 7 to a critical game point, but his forehand return of a Blake second serve went long to end the set. Whatever momentum the Electrics held at the start of the set had evaporated. OVERALL SCORE: HARTFORD 9, SCHENECTADY 7 Third set -- mixed doubles: De Villiers/Navratilova vs. Horn/Mattek The moment the fans had been waiting for arrived as recent Hall of Fame inductee Martina Navratilova took the court for Set #3. However, it was Nannie de Villiers who served first for the home team, staking them to a 1-0 lead. At that point, the pressure shifted to 15-year-old Bethanie Mattek, an American prodigy making her very first World Team Tennis appearance. The circumstances might have been daunting enough even without looking across the net and seeing a 19-time Wimbledon champion. Mattek tossed in a pair of double faults and was ultimately broken when she couldn't handle a Navratilova passing shot. Mattek looked better in the following game -- taking the first two points with a clean forehand pass and a swinging backhand volley winner -- but De Villiers rallied to hold for a 3-0 lead. The set's remaining service games were fairly routine. Liezel Horn got her team on the board at 1-3 and was also instrumental in Mattek's hold for 2-4, but her errant return of a Navratilova serve ended the 5-2 frame. Martina had missed one easy forehand volley midway through the set, but otherwise looked good as her team regained the lead. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 12, HARTFORD 11 Fourth set -- women's singles: Nannie de Villiers vs. Bethanie Mattek Never having been higher than 172 in the WTA Tour's singles rankings, Nannie de Villiers admitted it was "odd" that she got the call to play singles instead of Martina Navratilova. Early on, however, it was looking like a wise call. Bethanie Mattek sliced a backhand wide to end the first game and De Villiers tacked on a service hold for a 2-0 lead. Mattek is only 5 foot 4 and looks as young as she is, but she showed off a pretty good serve in the next game, a hold for 1-2. De Villiers (who, like Navratilova, was wearing shorts rather than a skirt) barreled through Game 4 at love to snare a 3-1 advantage. At that point, Hartford coach Paul Assaiante decided it was time for a change. Teams can make one substitution per match in WTT and in this case it was Liezel Horn coming on to spell Mattek. It was an abrupt end to what surely had to be a disappointing debut for the young Minnesota native, but she got reassuring pats on the back from her coach and teammates. There are some holes in Horn's singles game (including a dangerously high ball toss), but she came armed with an extraordinary amount of energy and enthusiasm. Liezel smiled broadly after holding for 2-3. She then got to 30-40 against the De Villiers serve, putting away a smash and virtually throwing her entire body into a celebratory fist pump. De Villiers sent a backhand just wide on break point, bringing the set to a 3-3 deadlock. Leading 40-30 in Game 8, Horn put away a high forehand volley, leaped into the air, and ran to the Hartford bench to get some high fives. Suddenly De Villiers had dropped three games in a row and needed to hold just to stay alive in the set. Trailing 30-40, Nannie made a lunging attempt at a drop volley, but the ball landed just wide. Excited as she'd been throughout her four-straight-game comeback effort, Horn's reaction to winning the set was no surprise. She broke into a full sprint, high-fived James Blake, and engaged Murphy Jensen in a hug. Horn's regarded as a doubles specialist and wasn't even supposed to play in the singles set, but in one fell swoop she'd managed to steal the spotlight and put the visting FoxForce back in the lead. OVERALL SCORE: HARTFORD 16, SCHENECTADY 15 Fifth set -- mixed doubles: Haygarth/Navratilova vs. J Blake/Horn Electrics' owner/general manager Nitty Singh took the break between sets as an opportunity to make a speech about how glad she was to welcome Navratilova back to the team. "If we could have one person to represent Planet Earth," Singh declared in the speech's hyperbolic final line, "it would be Martina." Of more immediate concern was the fifth set, with the match's overall outcome hanging in the balance. Brent Haygarth and James Blake matched holds for 1-1. Navratilova had a 30-15 lead in the following game, but Blake went airborne for a winning volley to 30-30 and Navratilova missed two consecutive low volleys to break herself. Schenectady nearly broke right back, but Haygarth bungled a volley on game point to fall behind 1-3. The balding South African redeemed himself in a love hold for 2-3 and ripped a forehand winner down the line to gain a 15-30 edge against Blake's serve. The following point was a classic, all four players drilling shots and Navratilova even reflexing back a Blake smash before Horn finally netted a volley. Blake got to 30-40 with an ace, but was less fortunate on the second break point. A backhand return from Navratilova floated over Horn's racquet and landed in, tying the set at 3. Martina wasn't about to be broken for the second time in this set -- the lefty smacked a service winner to hold at 15 for a 4-3 edge. Hartford took back the overall lead when Horn held for 4-4. It was well past 10 P.M., with a misty haze descending over the stadium, when the mixed doubles set went to a deciding tiebreak. It was a must-win situation for Haygarth and Navratilova, who jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage. The endlessly spunky Horn and unintimidated Blake took the next two points. Horn failed to dig out a Haygarth volley to fall behind 2-4. However, when the next point turned into a one-on-one volleying war between Brent and Liezel, it was the woman who prevailed. As a Haygarth reflex volley found the net, Horn jumped and shouted, "Yes!". Navratilova pushed a defensive return long to even the tiebreak at 4. In a situation unique to World Team Tennis, it was all riding on the next point. If Horn could win it on her serve, the match belonged to the FoxForce. If the Electrics could score a mini-break, they'd tie the overall score and force a super-tiebreaker. Is the suspense killing you or what? Haygarth advised Navratilova to try a cross-court return and she obliged, ripping Horn's second serve for an outright winner. Schenectady County takes the set and the tiebreak by identical 5-4 scores. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 20, HARTFORD 20 In a situation Navratilova had only encountered twice before in her long assocation with World Team Tennis, the match would be decided in a first-to-seven-points "supertiebreaker". Here is how it unfolded, after the Electrics won the toss and elected to serve...
The FoxForce's undefeated record (a 5-0 mark run up with Monica Seles on the roster) was snapped in dramatic fashion. "Get the beers," Brent Haygarth told doubles partner Mike Hill as they prepared to leave. Perhaps he needed a few cold ones to forget some of the volleys and overheads he'd bricked at key stages, but a win's a win and playing alongside Martina Navratilova made it particularly special for Haygarth. "It was as good as I would have thought. She's good. The bottom line is she's just really good. And I think she thrives under that kind of situation. She loves it. I think that's why she's still playing, one of the main reasons, is for that adrenaline rush." Navratilova concurred. "I love it," she said of the close finish. "I was just glad that we got into (the supertiebreak). We had chances; they had chances and a match point. Liezel did unbelievable coming back in the singles... It was just so back and forth and the home team wins, so everyone's happy." I asked Martina if she had ever seen Bethanie Mattek play before tonight (she hadn't) and what her impressions of the youngster were. "She's got good legs and seems to have a good head on shoulders. Needs to work on her second serve. She's a little wild, but I think she's got a good attitude. We'll see, I mean, I only saw her play four games in the singles. Doubles is not her strength, but she hit some decent volleys. She seems to be a decent all-around player." Even though she's older than Mattek by more than 28 years, Navratilova is still a pretty decent all-around player in her own right. |