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by Christopher Gerby For the second time in eight days, the New York Buzz hosted the high energy, value-for-your-money Hartford FoxForce. Their July 15th clash was a four-tiebreak affair finally won by the Buzz. With hopes of a playoff berth still intact, New York was under pressure to repeat that effort. Meanwhile, the FoxForce were coming straight off a heartbreaking overtime home loss against Sacramento. They even endured a flat tire on the way from Hartford to Schenectady and had plenty of excuses to turn in a lackluster performance. Instead they battled the Buzz in New York's most exciting home match of the season. And as you might expect with the clownish Jensen brothers, the entertainment began before a single ball was struck. Luke and Murphy's names were printed on the back of their jerseys in a wildly inappropriate stenciled font befitting royalty. Luke came out wearing a hat with a Swedish flag design on it, for no readily apparent reason. And during the formal pre-match team introductions, the brothers kneeled down so they would be roughly the same height as 5-foot-2 teammate Sonya Jeyaseelan. The tone was set for a fun, unpredictable evening. First set -- women's doubles: Craybas/De Villiers vs. Jeyaseelan/Maleeva A practice session on one of Central Park's public courts had Jeyaseelan and Magdalena Maleeva very ready for this opening set. They got off to a blazing start, playing aggressive doubles to break Nannie de Villiers at love. Maleeva ended the second game with two consecutive aces, although Nannie argued over the non-call on the second. She asked chair umpire Cam Bundy, "What are you watching? Seriously, what are you watching?" Along with the rest of us, Bundy watched the Buzz get their act together, winning three games in a row to gain the lead. Game 6 went down to the wire, but Maleeva struck a service winner for 3-3. Then it was her turn to argue a call, wailing "No no no, that ball was right on the line!" early in Game 7. When Craybas served a long fault on the next point, Maleeva sarcastically quipped, "That was in, I think." Craybas reached a 40-30 lead, but made two errors in a row to give away the game. Jeyaseelan then served out the set, taking it 5-3 as Craybas sent one last lunging forehand wide. OVERALL SCORE: HARTFORD 5, NEW YORK 3 Second set -- women's singles: Jill Craybas vs. Magdalena Maleeva Jill Craybas played remarkably assured tennis against the much higher ranked Magdalena Maleeva eight days ago, winning that set in a tiebreak. However, she was clearly out of sorts on this occasion. Maleeva won 11 of the first 13 points and led 2-0, 40-0 when Buzz coach Eric Kutner decided it was a time for a change. Teams are allowed to make one substition per match, so doubles specialist Nannie de Villiers got the call to replace Craybas. Undeterred, the Bulgarian held her serve and squeaked out a break for 4-0. "Good playing, Maggie. Keep it up," yelled Murphy Jensen from the sidelines. De Villiers was doing better than her predecessor, though, and she managed a surprising break of Maleeva for 1-4. When Maggie sent a forehand long to end the following game, De Villiers pumped her fist and shouted "come on!" The Buzz comeback fell short, though, with Maleeva gathering herself to close out the set, dropping only one point in Game 7. Maleeva was pleased to have gotten the better of Craybas in their rematch. "I knew I had to play well because she played very well against me the other time. I was jetlagged a little, not feeling very good, I had just arrived. Now I've had a few matches and I'm feeling better." She wasn't exactly overwhelmed by the replacement opponent. "Nannie can't really bother me, because she's not solid. I should not have lost that game at 4-0. I was kind of playing stupid." For her part, De Villiers was simply glad she got an opportunity. "I was too happy to just go in there and see if I could get any game. It's funny, because after I came off, I thought I actually did badly, but then I realized I was 3-0 down when I went on," Nannie said with a grin. "She's a very, very good player, very consistent, and I haven't played singles for so long." OVERALL SCORE: HARTFORD 10, NEW YORK 5 Third set -- mixed doubles: Bhupathi/De Villiers vs. L Jensen/Jeyaseelan Easy service games for Mahesh Bhupathi, Luke Jensen, and Nannie de Villiers quickly produced a 2-1 lead for the Buzz in the mixed. Game 4 nearly got away from Sonya Jeyaseelan, but Luke Jensen saved a break point with a winning volley and let out a victorious roar when De Villiers netted a return for 2-2. A couple points into Game 5, Jeyaseelan caught the corner with a winning lob and jumped into the air twice before engaging her partner in an excited high five. On the very next point, Bhupathi carved a nicely angled drop volley and Jensen gave chase. "I've got it...no I don't," said Luke as the ball bounced a second time. He eventually lost the game by returning a Bhupathi second serve into the net. Game 6 went to a 40-40 sudden death game point and the ensuing rally was a beauty. Jensen went flat out on a backhand volley, diving through the air, rolling, and popping back up. However, as soon as Luke regained his footing, a Bhupathi reply was headed right at him. Jensen popped a forehand volley long to lose the point and the game. The Buzz finally had a set where they were up a break. De Villiers took full advantage, losing just one point on her serve to clinch a 5-2 win of the set. Luke Jensen, who feels like he's been letting his team down this season (despite acrobatic shots like he pulled off in this set) whipped the court surface with a towel as he returned to the Hartford bench. OVERALL SCORE: HARTFORD 12, NEW YORK 10 Fourth set -- men's singles: Justin Bower vs. Murphy Jensen Hartford's first trip to Schenectady featured Justin Bower winning a ho-hum 5-3 set over Murphy Jensen. Four relatively uneventful service holds into tonight's set, it looked like we were headed for more of the same. However, Game 5 ended with the longest rally I've seen in Team Tennis all season. The lefties ran each other all over the court before a Jensen error finally gave Bower the break and a 3-2 lead. Justin reminded Murphy that "the Tour de France is in Europe," apparently referring to all the ground they covered in that marathon point. Another extended rally capped off the next game, with Bower ripping a forehand winner down the line to hold serve and take a crucial 4-2 lead. Suddenly the overall match score was tied. Bower opened Game 7 with back-to-back winners and got to 0-40 when Jensen misfired on a backhand. Murphy saved the first two set points, but faced another at 30-40. Several strokes into the point, Jensen came to net and hit what looked to be a winning volley. Bower got to it, though, and threw up a defensive lob. Jensen replied with an overhead smash, but Bower also got that ball back. With his third chance to put away the point, Jensen hit a nice drop shot. But leaving no doubt about his wheels, Justin Bower sprinted forward, reached the ball just before its second bounce and flipped back a miraculous forehand winner, putting a spectacular exclamation point on his 5-2 win of the set. Bower pumped both of his fists and screamed like a professional wrestler. Buzz coach Eric Kutner walked out to congratulate him, accidentally blocking Murphy Jensen's path to the Hartford bench. With a nasty scowl on his face, Murphy shoved Kutner out of the way! Hartford coach Paul Assaiante quickly endeavored to calm down his charge, talking while Murphy sat with his head buried in his hands. Eric Kutner eventually made his way over there and had a quiet exchange with an apologetic Jensen. (The two would later share a cordial handshake and a few more calm words after the match which made it apparent there were no hard feelings.) Meanwhile, announcer Dr. Sound was having a bit of fun with the incident. He repeated one of his usual mantras -- "no one pushes us around" -- which was particularly pointed in this case. He then spotted Nannie de Villiers throwing frisbees to the fans and asked, "Hey Nannie, can I have one as a shield?" OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 15, HARTFORD 14 Fifth set -- men's doubles: Bhupathi/Bower vs. L Jensen/M Jensen The momentum of the match immediately took another shift as the Jensen brothers broke Mahesh Bhupathi's serve and celebrated by bumping chests. The next game went to 40-all, but Luke escaped with a service winner...immediately followed by an ear-piercing shriek from teammate Sonya Jeyaseelan. The Canadian sparkplug shared an embarrassed laugh with Maggie Maleeva when she realized the entire crowd heard her. Quick holds from Justin Bower and Murphy Jensen took the Hartford lead to 3-1. "C'mon, Justin, we need this!" was the imploring cry from Nannie de Villiers. "Go get them, Luke!" countered Maleeva after Bhupathi served his way to 2-3. At 30-30 in Game 6, Murphy put away a powerful smash and the endlessly energetic Jeyaseelan sprung out of her seat, drawing a laugh from De Villiers. A big serve from Luke then made it 4-2 in favor of the Jensens. Sonya hopped up again, running in place while screaming in delight. (Gee, do you think she wanted to win this match?) Bower netted a volley, getting his service game off to a poor start. Murphy then knocked off a winner for 0-30, inspiring Jeyaseelan to leap up and run around in a circle while pointing and yelling. Another errant volley from Bower made it 0-40 and gave Hartford a fistful of match points. Luke missed a return on the first, but Jeyaseelan was still pumped up and instructed Murphy to "let it rip!" However, a deep Bower serve made it 30-40. Luke then taunted the South African, saying "ace me, Justin." Incredibly, Bower took him up on the dare, swinging a perfect serve out wide for 40-all. Murphy made no such taunt on the next point, but Bower repeated his act anyway, blasting another impeccably placed ace to win the game and extend the set at 3-4. Bower bent down low, clenching his fist as the fired up crowd hollered its approval. Eric Kutner and Nannie de Villiers rose from their chairs, egging the fans on, asking for even more support. However, Murphy Jensen blocked it all out, throwing in a service winner and an unreturnable drop shot on his way to a 40-0 lead. Once again, the Jensens were on the verge of winning the set and match. Luke tried a drop volley of his own which clipped the tape but fell back onto Hartford's side for 40-15. Murphy went to the well again himself on the next point, hitting a drop shot in the direction of Justin Bower, who made like a jackrabbit one more time and ripped a backhand winner between the Jensens. Now it was 40-30 and Hartford had its seventh chance to secure victory. This time they made it count, as Murphy put in a good serve and Luke angled off a winning backhand volley. The Jensen brothers were rather subdued about it all, perhaps too emotionally drained from that 5-3 roller coaster of a final set. Sonya Jeyaeelan, on the other hand, was jumping up and down with reckless abandon, thrilled that her team finally won a nail-biter. FINAL SCORE: HARTFORD 19, NEW YORK 18 Even after Justin Bower's description-defying heroics, Murphy Jensen's goat-to-hero recovery, and Maggie Maleeva's two sets of world class play, one could argue that little Sonya Jeyaseelan stole the show. She was happy to discuss this win and the previous night's narrow loss to Sacramento. "We had the same situation. We were up quadruple match point on the guys and we lost. Again (tonight) we were up by the same thing and we were, like, hoping our guys would not think about what happened last night and come through. And they really did... We came out here and fought through and it's great." A knee injury and some "tough draws" (first round bouts with the likes of Henin, Huber, and Coetzer) have caused Sonya's WTA ranking to fall all the way from 49 to 193, but she's optimistic about getting back on track this summer. Contrary to a rumor I read, though, she's not scheduled to play doubles with Monica Seles in Toronto next month. "I'd like to. I'm not sure. She's not playing in Toronto, actually, but I asked her if she'll play with me in New York (at the US Open), so we'll see. Hopefully she'll stay healthy." While Jeyaseelan attempts to claw her way back into the world's Top 100, Magdalena Maleeva has her sights set on qualifying for the year-end Masters event in Germany. "It would just be nice for me to be in the Top 16. My goal was to be seeded at the Grand Slams, so I did manage that for the French and Wimbledon. I'm feeling good, I'm really healthy, and I'm playing pretty well." As for the Buzz, this heartbreaking loss dropped their record to 6-5 and cast major doubt on their dwindling playoff aspirations. Obviously a bitter pill to swallow, but Nannie de Villiers was gracious in her post-match comments. "I think Hartford was just so psyched up to come out here and win. We had lost to them the first match (in Hartford) so we weren't thinking we were gonna kick their butts or anything easy." |