|
by Christopher Gerby A long evening at Schenectady's Central Park was scheduled to begin with Monica Seles participating in a 5 PM press conference. Seles would be the first big star in town this season, leading the 2-2 Hartford FoxForce against the 2-2 Buzz. However, as of 5:15, there was still no sign of Monica. Word came down that her flight from the Hamptons was delayed, so her four teammates (Magdalena Maleeva, Sonya Jeyaseelan, and the Jensen brothers) fielded questions instead. Seles and Maleeva had just played doubles together for the first time, losing 5-0 in the final set of Thursday night's road loss to the New York Hamptons. "We choked" was Maleeva's succinct take on that effort. I asked whether it would be her or Jeyaseelan in the lineup tonight and couldn't get a straight answer. "It's a secret," quipped Luke Jensen. "It's a game time decision. We're gonna see how the racquets are strung." Maleeva explained that last bit by letting us know "last night in the Hamptons, the stringer, he was reading the manual." Alrighty then. Long-time fans of the Buzz will be pleased to hear the update we got on Rachel Jensen, an original member of the team whose bubbly, flirtatious personality made up for her meager tennis skills during the 1995 Team Tennis season. "Rachel's doing good. She's 28 now and she actually still walks around in the Bees outfit," said Luke of his little sister. "She has a 2-year-old now and is living in Atlanta, Georgia, having a lot of fun." Visiting teams usually warm up for the matches by practicing on the stadium court. However, around 6:30 the FoxForce -- including Seles -- could be found a bit off the beaten path, hitting on two of the public courts. Only a couple dozen fans watched through a chain link fence as Monica weakly hit a few one-handed forehands and received some treatment from the trainer. Seles eventually departed via golf cart and joined her team on the sidelines for the scheduled 7 o'clock start. However, mere minutes after waving to the crowd and sitting down, Monica abruptly left the court...and never returned. After nearly 20 minutes, Hartford coach Paul Assaiante took a microphone and addressed the crowd, letting them know Monica would be unable to play. As it turns out, she came down with a nasty case of food poisoning in the Hamptons and "threw up six times this morning," unable to even stand at times. Assaiante praised her for gamely trying to give it a go this evening, a sentiment which drew some applause. Despite paying as much as $36 (up from the usual $10) to see Seles in action, the Schenectady patrons were quite understanding about the whole thing. A handful of fans requested (and were given) refunds at the start of the match, but the vast majority stayed. General manger Nitty Singh has decided to reward those ticket-holders by offering them free admission to July 20th's match against Delaware. First set -- mixed doubles: Bhupathi/De Villiers vs. L Jensen/Jeyaseelan The upside of losing Seles was the opportunity to see Sonya Jeyaseelan, a player so energetic and vocal that she may well become an honorary Jensen by the end of Hartford's season. The men each held serve to open matters, as "Dual Hand Luke" got to 1-1 with a left-handed ace. Early in the third game, Jeyaseelan cut across the net to knock off a volley and her momentum carried her all the way to the Hartford bench. Making like Hale Irwin at golf's US Open, Jeyaseelan exchanged high fives with Maggie and Murphy, high stepping all the way. Hartford ultimately broke Nannie de Villiers in that game after Bhupathi netted a forehand volley. "Yes! Come on!" Jeyaseelan shouted while pumping her fist. Game 4 featured De Villiers accidentally clocking umpire Candy Pantano with an errant return. "You can default her right now," Luke Jensen deadpanned to Pantano. "Get her out. I checked in the rule book." Nannie was allowed to keep playing, of course, but Jeyaseelan held serve for a 3-1 lead. Bhupathi authoritatively smashed away a Jeyaseelan lob in Game 5, but Luke kept giving Sonya positive reinforcement, telling her "I love that. That was the right shot." Jensen was being just as nice to the ball boys, alternately calling one of them "rock star," "dude," and "champ." It made for some interesting theater as the FoxForce kept their lead, on serve at 4-3. Jeyaseelan faced a break point in Game 8, but the scrappy Toronto native saved it with a service winner and shook her fist again. The game would be decided in a tense 40-all "game point" (Team Tennis uses no-ad scoring). It came down to a tricky overhead for Jensen, who attempted to hit it while airborne and falling backwards. The ball landed wide and Luke landed flat on his back. It was a rather scary moment, but the 35-year-old was fine. Unfortunately for him, the set was now tied 4-4 and would be decided in a first-to-five-points tiebreaker...
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 5, HARTFORD 4 Second set -- women's singles: Jill Craybas vs. Magdalena Maleeva No team in the league could boast a better backup singles player than Hartford, who were able to replace Seles with the world's 14th ranked woman (wrongly introduced by the chair umpire as "Manuela Maleeva"). However, the substitution didn't throw Jill Craybas off her game. She was matching Maggie shot for shot in the early going, even firing up the crowd by rifling a backhand winner down the line on the dead run. Maleeva did break for a 2-1 lead, but Craybas broke right back and then held easily for 3-2. Jill was holding her own in the long exchanges of deep groundstrokes, so Maggie began mixing up her game. She made several net approaches and hit a pair of winning drop shots in a hold for 3-3. Two holds later, it was 4-4 and time for the night's second tiebreak. This one wasn't nearly as suspenseful as the first. Craybas played brilliantly, winning it 5 points to 0 as one last Maleeva lob fell long. "I think it's probably the best match I've played so far," Craybas said afterwards. "I got into a good groove." OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 10, HARTFORD 8 Third set -- women's doubles: Craybas/De Villiers vs. Jeyaseelan/Maleeva Another intriguing matchup loomed as two of the WTA Tour's most intense competitors teamed up to face the Buzz's solid tandem of Jill Craybas and Nannie de Villiers. Wearing her hair in fetching pigtails tonight, De Villiers held easily to start it off. In the next game, Maleeva was called for a foot fault and then buried her second serve in the net. Dr. Sound commented by playing his "Twilight Zone" music clip, only stopping it when Maleeva raised her racquet in his direction and said, "That's OK." The Bulgarian went on to hold for 1-1. Craybas then fell behind 15-40 and pushed a half-volley into the net on break point to trail 1-2. Yet again, the FoxForce were up a break. Jeyaseelan looked to make this one stick, opening Game 4 with an ace. Dr. Sound replied with a clip of Shania Twain singing "that don't impress me much." Sonya immediately looked up and said, "That's too bad. I'll do it again and maybe that'll impress you." She failed to make good on that vow, however -- the Buzz broke her serve to make it 2-all. De Villiers saw her racquet fly right out of her sweaty hand on a fault in Game 5, but she recoved to win the game at 15. Subsequent holds by Maleeva, Craybas, and Jeyaseelan forced the evening's third consecutive tiebreak. This one opened inauspiciously for the Buzz. De Villiers double faulted and again blamed a wet grip, furiously wiping her hand on a towel. After another fault, she wiped her hand on the court! That didn't help, either, as she missed the second serve and bounced her racquet in frustation. Without hitting a ball, the FoxForce were up 2-0. They never looked back, winning the 'breaker 5-0 when Maleeva put away a high forehand volley. I flagged Maggie down after tonight's match and asked her about playing with fellow fist-pumper Jeyaseelan. "We are good friends with Sonya, so we like each other's company. We had a good time and we played pretty well." Does this mean Sonya has forgiven Maggie for mercilessly drubbing her 6-1, 6-0 in Montreal last summer? "I think so," Maleeva replied with a smile. OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 14, HARTFORD 13 Fourth set -- men's singles: Justin Bower vs. Murphy Jensen The most interesting thing about this set (aside from the rarity of seeing two left-handers square off) was Justin Bower's headwear. After his bandana on Wednesday night and visor on Friday night, now he was sporting a red headband which looked like it may have been pilfered from Patrick Rafter's closet. Alas, Bower wasn't playing like Rafter this evening. In fact, he was openly frustrated with his inability to make an early impression on Murphy Jensen's serve. Murphy is the less accomplished of the Jensen brothers, though, and he was due to crumble sooner or later. The collapse came in a sloppy Game 5, where Bower broke at 15. Jensen then became uncharacteristically agitated when an overrule went against him in Game 6. He dubbed it a "s*** call" and was lucky to avoid an audible obscenity warning. Later in the set, he even mixed it up with Dr. Sound, asking the announcer/DJ "You wanna play, big mouth?" In the end, it was Bower winning eight of his last nine service points to close out a pretty comfortable, unspectacular 5-3 victory. OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 19, HARTFORD 16 Fifth set -- men's doubles: Bhupathi/Bower vs. L Jensen/M Jensen If the Buzz's gradually improving men's doubles team could win this final set, they'd clinch an overall win over the FoxForce. The Jensens were looking pretty serious, however, and surely wanted to avenge Thursday's 5-3 loss to Bhupathi and Bower. After all four players succeeded in their initial service games, the shot of the night was authored by Justin Bower in Game 5. Running down a ball which had dribbled off the tape, Bower lunged around the post and flicked an obscenely angled backhand cross-court. Sailing almost perfectly parallel to the net, it landed in the opposite doubles alley for a clean winner. Even the Jensens had to applaud with their racquets. Bower held for 3-2, but Luke Jensen matched him at 3-3, drawing a loud "Yeah, boys!" from Sonya Jeyaseelan, now excelling in the unofficial role of team cheerleader. Bhupathi held at love for 4-3, ending the game with a masterful topspin lob. The Jensens refused to buckle, though, playing effectively enough at the net to be called "Great Wall of China!" by Jeyaseelan. Murphy held for 4-4 and the fans would be treated to one more tiebreak, which Hartford needed to win to force overtime. Bower claimed the first three points all by himself with a pair of strong serves and a winning (albeit slightly mis-hit) backhand return. The Jensens took the next three points, including two against Bhupathi's serve. A forehand pass from Bower handcuffed Murphy, bringing up match point at 4-3. This time Bower drilled a forehand laser at Luke, who could only stick a racquet out and block the ball into the ground. FINAL SCORE: NEW YORK 24, HARTFORD 20 Even without Monica Seles in the lineup, Hartford definitely had their chances in this one. "There were four tiebreaks, so it could have gone either way," observed Magdalena Maleeva. Luke Jensen put the blame squarely on himself and his brother. "Again, a situation this season where Murphy and I have let down the team. We've gotta win our men's singles; we've gotta win our men's doubles; and the mixed doubles." I asked if the Jensens were hoping for a wild card into the US Open and Luke was realistic. "We have to do a lot better than we are now. We haven't played well throughout the season. We have to get wins. You've gotta beat teams and right now we're not doing that." Meanwhile, Luke had nothing but kind words for ailing teammate Monica Seles, describing her as "one of the greatest people that I've met in that type of position. She could be high maintenance and is extremely low maintenance. Such a team player throughout the matches we've played together and traveling and helping with the bags... She really tried to play, but what can you do?" |