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by Christopher Gerby From the perspective of the World Team Tennis league standings, Thursday night's match between Schenectady County and Springfield wasn't terribly significant. Midway through the season, the 2-4 Electrics and 3-4 Lasers were already looking like long shots to play in August 26th's WTT final. However, the Schenectady debut of reigning French Open champion Mary Pierce drew a fairly large, enthusiastic crowd. The only hitch was the late arrival of Springfield's Debbie Graham and Tara Snyder. A flight connection mishap on the way from Illinois forced them to more or less step right off the plane onto the court, a good 25 minutes later than scheduled. "Just one of those days," said a beleagured Graham. First set -- men's doubles: Haygarth/Hill vs. MacPherson/Stafford The men's doubles set has opened all four of the Electrics' home matches this year and, for the most part, has yielded all the excitement of watching paint dry. This time around the teams were virtual mirror images: a South African with a receding hairline (Brent Haygarth) and a powerfully built Aussie (Mike Hill) taking on an Aussie with a receding hairline (David MacPherson) and a powerfully built South African (Grant Stafford). All four showed solid form in their service games, eight of which ticked by without a single break point opportunity. Aside from some nice touch volleys by Hill, the highlight was Haygarth netting a volley and dejectedly kicking the ball all the way into the stands. Shaky play at the net finally cost Brent in the tiebreak, the two key points being backhand volley errors from Haygarth when Schenectady was serving. The Electrics did get to within 2-4 in the tiebreak, but MacPherson then closed out the set with a winning forehand volley. OVERALL SCORE: SPRINGFIELD 5, SCHENECTADY 4 Second set -- men's singles: Michael Hill vs. Grant Stafford There have been some memorable moments in Grant Stafford's 10-year singles career (he even held a two sets to love lead against Patrick Rafter at Wimbledon in 1997), but the Johannesburg native has been easing more and more into the role of doubles specialist. It therefore wasn't shocking to see him get off to a slow start in his bout against Mike Hill. A double fault and a backhand error dropped Stafford from 15-15 to 15-40 in his opening service game. At that point, a ball boy dropped a ball just as Grant was going into his service motion. He protested to umpire Candy Pantano, hoping to receive a first serve, and was fairly livid when Pantano said she hadn't seen what happened. "Why weren't you watching? What were you doing?" No answer was forthcoming, but Stafford regained his composure enough to win the next three points and the game. Nevertheless, Hill quickly let it be known he was the evening's sharper player. Limiting his errors and effectively rushing the net, Hill held at love, broke for 2-1, and tacked on another hold for a 3-1 edge. Stafford did a nice job of protecting his serve for the remainder of the set, but Hill just had too many weapons. The Aussie served a pair of aces in the final game of the 5-3 set. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 9, SPRINGFIELD 8 Third set -- women's doubles: De Villiers/Pierce vs. Graham/Snyder Even though she's reached a pair of Grand Slam doubles finals this year, on Thursday night Mary Pierce looked like a less natural doubles player than her partner, Nannie de Villiers. It was De Villiers who struck a beautiful stab volley winner in the first game of the third set, drawing some applause from Pierce herself. Nannie put away another volley winner two points later to close out her service hold. Debbie Graham and Tara Snyder, meanwhile, were looking like two players who hadn't gotten enough time to prepare and warm up. Graham's big serve has made her a doubles force for years, but she and Snyder missed a few volleys as Debbie was broken for 2-0. After a De Villiers hold made it 3-0, the Lasers finally got a 40-30 lead on Snyder's serve. However, Graham netted a volley to bring up game point, which De Villiers took with a winning forehand volley. A frustrated Snyder tossed her racquet high into the sky. The only good news for Tara and Debbie was that the end was near. De Villiers held at 15, closing out the 5-0 set with yet another winning forehand volley. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 14, SPRINGFIELD 8 Fourth set -- women's singles: Mary Pierce vs. Tara Snyder The one previous singles match between Mary Pierce and Tara Snyder was recent and decisive. Less than two months ago, Pierce routed Snyder 6-3, 6-1 on her way to the French Open title. The hard court in Schenectady's Central Park is considerably faster than the Roland Garros clay, but a similar result seemed to be in the offing when Pierce jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Backhand errors began seeping into Mary's game, however, as Snyder held for 1-2 and broke for 2-2. The fifth game was determined by forehand errors from the Snyder racquet. Four gaffes off that wing broke the Kansas native, who then fell behind 4-2 when Pierce stormed through a successful service game. Snyder held at love for 3-4, but control of the set still rested in Pierce's hands. She was in vintage form in the eighth game. She drilled a wicked swinging backhand volley from mid-court for 15-0, threw in an ace for 30-0, and blasted a service winner for 40-30. Snyder then pushed a backhand return over the baseline on set point. It had been a competitive bout, with some good groundtroke exchanges, but it was Pierce who'd executed her powerful shots with better accuracy. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 19, SPRINGFIELD 11 Fifth set -- mixed doubles: Pierce/Haygarth vs. Graham/MacPherson The overall match result was virtually a foregone conclusion before the final set even got underway. The underdog Lasers would need to win the mixed doubles and then reel off several more winning games in a row in overtime. Content with a safe lead, a number of the fans filed out during the break between sets. They actually missed some of the night's most entertaining tennis. Haygarth held easily for a 1-0 lead, but MacPherson answered with an impressive hold of his own, guiding a backhand down the line for 1-1. The see-saw third game went down to the wire, Pierce double faulting on game point to fall behind 2-1. Game 4 was also hotly contested, featuring one great rally in which MacPherson fell down making a reflex volley but won the point anyway. However, Graham's complete inability to put a first serve in play cost her. On game point, she struggled to dig out a low backhand volley, squealing as the ball sailed long. Playing in her warmup jacket (a concession to the chilly night air), Graham was making an admirable effort but committing some costly errors. Haygarth held at love, giving the Electrics a 3-2 lead in the set and a formidable 22-13 lead in the match. The hill for Springield to climb became even steeper when MacPherson fell behind 0-40 on his serve. As announcer/DJ "Dr. Sound" played his "Twilight Zone" music for approximately the fifth time, MacPherson turned around and gave him a piece of his mind. "Not only are you annoying me," MacPherson grumbled, "you're annoying everyone in the entire stadium." Even though it was a visting player slamming the home announcer, MacPherson's tirade drew a round of applause from the sympathetic crowd. For his part, "Dr. Sound" seemed quite pleased two points later, when Haygarth ripped a forehand winner down the line to break MacPherson for a 4-2 lead. Graham and MacPherson actually garnered a couple break points against Pierce in Game 8, but could convert neither. Graham's return of a Pierce first serve on match point landed long, wrapping up Schenectady's 5-2 win of the final set. FINAL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 24, SPRINGFIELD 13 The circus atmosphere (complete with a pair of frisbee-throwing clowns) may not have agreed with David MacPherson, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for Mary Pierce. The 25-year-old happily signed autographs and posed for pictures before the match, during the intermission, and after the victory. Even while playing, she had a smile plastered on her face. She summed up the night by saying, "I had a lot of fun. It was great. I enjoyed my teammates. I enjoyed the crowd. I enjoyed the music." She'll play one more match for the Electrics (a road date in St. Louis) before returning to the WTA grind with tournaments at Stanford and San Diego. Pierce didn't exactly make any headlines with her post-match comments, but did confirm that her very successful doubles partnership with Martina Hingis will continue for the rest of the season. Nannie de Villiers will have to be content with playing one more WTT match alongside Pierce. "Mary just shows you exactly what power can do and sort of takes charge of the point," Nannie said. "I really enjoyed that." |