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by Christopher Gerby The Philadelphia Freedoms came to Schenectady with a piping hot record of 8 wins and 2 losses, putting them safely atop the Eastern Conference standings. Not exactly the time to make a roster change, but as scheduled, journeyman David DiLucia gave way to living legend Jimmy Connors. It does say something about Philadelphia's team chemistry that DiLucia made the trip and suited up anyway. And with three reigning Wimbledon doubles champions (Lisa Raymond, Rennae Stubbs, and Don Johnson) still in the lineup, the Freedoms had a good chance whether or not Connors could recapture the magic of his glory days. The Buzz wouldn't likely go down without a fight, though, as they needed a win in this home finale to keep their fading playoff hopes alive. It was an extremely hot, muggy evening in upstate New York with a "slight chance of showers" in the forecast. About 20 minutes before play was scheduled to begin, Connors emerged from the players' trailer. As he stopped to sign autographs and pose for pictures, a light rain began falling...and quickly turned into a full-fledged storm. Fans went scurrying, the players all headed back to their trailer, and a lengthy rain delay followed. Jill Craybas of the Buzz emerged briefly to get better reception on her cell phone. Rennae Stubbs popped out to sign a few autographs for fans who were anxiously awaiting another glimpse of Connors. Finally, right around 8 PM, Jimmy and his teammates headed back out to the court. However, the match was further delayed by long team introductions, an ovation for league co-founder Billie Jean King (making her only Schenectady visit of the season), and a special ceremony in which Schnenectady County officially named July 24th, 2001 "Jimmy Connors Day". Connors looked genuinely uncomfortable with all the hoopla and eager to get his first World Team Tennis match of the millennium underway. First set -- women's doubles: Craybas/De Villiers vs. Raymond/Stubbs The WTA's top doubles tandem actually lost to little-known Jill Craybas and Nannie de Villiers when these teams met a week ago in Philadelphia. Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs were out for revenge and got off on the right foot by breaking Nannie's serve. Raymond's service game went to 40-40, when a De Villiers backhand hit the tape and fell back onto New York's side, putting them down 0-2. De Villiers was all sorts of angry and even shouted "idiot!" at herself after missing an overhead in Game 3, but Craybas fought off a break point to get their team on the board at 1-2. Stubbs and De Villiers then exchanged holds for 3-2. Midway through Game 6, Raymond hit a smash right at De Villiers, who could only stick a racquet up to protect herself. The ball deflected off and line drived its way directly over to the Philadelphia bench, hitting David DiLucia, who was seated right next to Jimmy Connors. De Villiers gave Craybas a high five, pretending she'd done it on purpose. Connors got into the act by switching seats and cowering behind Don Johnson. Once the levity passed, Raymond closed out a comfortable hold for 4-2. A very sloppy Jill Craybas service game followed, with Lisa Raymond knocking home a forehand volley winner for the break and the set. Rennae Stubbs wasn't thrilled with some of the returns she missed, but it was a mostly impressive performance by the Philadelphia women. OVERALL SCORE: PHILADELPHIA 5, NEW YORK 2 Second set -- women's singles: Justin Bower vs. Jimmy Connors "Let's go Justin, you own this guy!" cried out a jokester in the stands as 23-year-old Justin Bower settled in for his first meeting with 48-year-old Jimmy Connors (who won four of his eight Grand Slam singles titles before Bower was even born). Connors still looks more or less like the man who made a career-defining run to the US Open semifinals ten years ago. The rocking motion on his serve, the lunging returns, the way he throws his body into a volley -- all the trademarks on display for an appreciative audience. He was surprisingly sharp off the ground in the set's opening game, holding at 15 even though he missed all but one of his first serves. However, Bower then made a statement of his own, holding by the same score to even things at 1 all. With DJ/announcer Dr. Sound playing a clip from the children's song "Jimmy Crack Corn", Connors fought off a pair of break points in Game 3. Alas, Jimbo sent a forehand just long on game point, allowing the young South African to snare a 2-1 lead. Bower's big serving keyed an easy hold for 3-1. Connors climbed out of another 15-40 hole in Game 5, but again came up short on game point -- Bower ripped a cross-court forehand past him to break for 4-1. Bower continued to overpower Connors, opening Game 6 with an ace. Two points later there was a downright sad moment as Jimmy tried to set up for a shot but couldn't quite move his feet in time and got hit by the ball. He did push Bower to 30-30, but Justin finished him off with a service winner and a blistering ace out wide. All Connors could do was shrug as he returned to his seat after being trounced 5-1. The lopsided score was slightly misleading, but important for the Buzz, who now had the overall lead. OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 7, PHILADELPHIA 6 Third set -- mixed doubles: Bhupathi/De Villiers vs. Johnson/Stubbs Don Johnson was the star of this set's opening game, a break of Mahesh Bhupathi. Then he held at love to give his team an early 2-0 cushion. An emphatic poach from the Indian finally got the Buzz going, as Bhupathi blasted away a backhand volley for 40-15. A return from Johnson on the next point apparently hit the sideline, but after a long pause, chair umpire Laura Mountford muttered "the ball was out" and awarded the game to New York. An absolutely livid Rennae Stubbs said "you've got to be kidding" as she argued the call. Johnson seemed most offended by the lateness of that nonchalant overrule. "What were you waiting for?" he demanded. Philadelphia lost the argument, but continued taking care of its service games on the way to a 4-3 lead. With a chance to serve it out, "Stubbsy" suddenly got a case of the yips, double faulting twice. At 15-40, Johnson hit what would have been a winning smash, but De Villiers ran it down and tossed up a defensive lob. Stubbs then uncharacteristically shanked an overhead to lose the game and bring up the evening's first tiebreak.
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 11, PHILADELPHIA 11 Fourth set -- women's singles: Jill Craybas vs. Lisa Raymond The fourth set got underway just after 10 PM, with a foggy haze and dive bomber moths filling the air. The first three games featured the worst tennis I've seen all year. Despite their solid singles rankings, former NCAA champions Jill Craybas and Lisa Raymond couldn't keep the ball in play. They both looked utterly dismayed and even started hitting moonballs to each other just to get some kind of rhythm. Craybas mis-hit one overhead so badly that it sailed into the announcer's booth, where Dr. Sound caught it on the fly. Craybas got broken for 0-1, but Raymond was just as hopeless in a break for 1-1. Tensions were still running high, so David DiLucia didn't appreciate Dr. Sound playing his "Final Jeopardy" music clip whenever Raymond took some time before her serve. "How old is that Jeopardy? How old is that?!?" he screamed, sounding seriously agitated. (For a guy who wasn't even playing, DiLucia sure was making his presence felt.) Raymond held for 2-1 and Craybas matched her to 2-2, finally stepping into some winners in Game 4. A double fault from Raymond opened the door a bit in Game 5, but Craybas netted a return to trail 2-3. Jill then coughed up a double fault and a pair of unforced errors to give Raymond a 15-40 look. Lisa blew both break points and engaged Craybas in another moonball rally on game point. Craybas finally netted a backhand to lose serve and get behind the eight ball at 2-4. Then Raymond played a poor service game, getting broken to 3-4. Suddenly the only shot working for either player was Jill's backhand down the line, which she went to repeatedly in holding for 4-4. New York and Philadelphia headed into another tiebreak...which was as ugly as most of this set. The first six points were comprised of three Raymond errors (all from her backhand slice) and three Craybas errors. Lisa netted a forehand to give Jill a set point at 4-3. Raymond then surrendered one last gift, finding the net with another sliced backhand. It wasn't a set to put in the time capsule, but the 5-3 tiebreak win was big for the Buzz, who regained the overall lead. OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 16, PHILADELPHIA 15 Fifth set -- men's doubles: Bhupathi/Bower vs. Connors/Johnson Fans were allowed to keep balls hit into the stands tonight, so only two points into the fifth set, a new one had to be taken out of a can. With big serving Mahesh Bhupathi about to unleash this fresh sphere at him, Jimmy Connors asked "new ball?" and shuffled far behind the baseline. He got back into his traditional return stance, but New York won the game a few points later when a Justin Bower backhand whizzed past the ear of a crouching Connors. Don Johnson pretended to check his watch during the second game (it was about 10:45 now), which he eventually held for 1-1. Playing together for the first time, Connors and Johnson nearly collided during a point in Game 3, where Bower held at love. Don hit the heck out of an overhead smash in Game 4 and the ball wound up in Dr. Sound's booth. "That felt gooood," Johnson said in his North Carolina drawl (think Jeff Varner from "Survivor 2"). Connors whacked a service winner at 40-15 to hold for 2-2. Easy holds from Bhupathi and Johnson brought the evenly matched set to 3-3. Early in Game 7, Johnson yelled "out! out! out!" to warn his partner off a ball that was going long. "I'm too damn old to go for it anyway," Connors quipped, getting a big laugh from the near-capacity crowd. Justin Bower's lefty serve continued to work wonders -- an ace closed out his hold for 4-3. Now the pressure was on Connors to hold serve and force yet another tiebreak. He was on the brink of disaster at 40-all, but put in a good first serve which set up Johnson for an easy smash. So we were headed into a tiebreak after all. A win for Philly would force a "supertiebreaker". A win for New York would end the match in their favor.
How else could the last home match of the New York Buzz's 2001 season end but in a supertiebreaker? The format: the same players remain on the court and the first team to win 7 points wins the match. With playoff implications hanging in the balance, you could have cut the humid air with a knife. The Buzz got a key 2-0 lead when Connors and Johnson made one errant volley apiece. Bower continued his knack for clutch deliveries, notching two service winners to 4-0. Bhupathi went airborne to drive home a forehand volley winner for 5-0. The home team was on an absolute rampage. Johnson finally got his team on the board, hitting an eye-popping behind-the-back volley winner for 1-5. ("Where's the jumbotron? I wanna see an instant replay of that," exclaimed one impressed fan.) After the teams switched sides, Bhupathi uncorked a big first serve which Connors could only block back into the net. With a whole fistful of match points at 6-1, Bhupathi blasted another service winner. It actually looked long, but the Freedoms were too exhausted (and too far behind) to bother arguing. At 11:10 PM, Mahesh Bhupathi celebrated his team's 7-1 domination of the supertiebreaker by hitting a ball (the one he would have needed for a second serve) sky-high over the scoreboard. FINAL SCORE: NEW YORK 21, PHILADELPHIA 20 "I'm still standin'," Jimmy Connors cheerfully said a few minutes after enduring the narrow defeat. "I enjoyed it. I had a good time. I don't wanna do it full time anymore, but to come out and play like this, we've got a great team. The girls and the guys -- that's definitely what's it all about, to get into a team event and try to pull through." He blamed his lopsided singles loss on the Team Tennis scoring format. "For me, I prefer the long, drawn-out games: deuce, ad, deuce, ad. It goes awful quick and things can happen. I lose two (40-all) games and that's tough to handle." Asked what he's been up to during his break from competitive tennis, Connors simply replied, "livin' life, babe, livin' life." Jimmy says he would consider playing in the WTT championship match next month, but his 8-3 Freedoms have to win the Eastern Conference title first. They control their own destiny, but the 7-5 Buzz are now nipping at their heels. Even with Jill Craybas mired in a funk, the team has rounded into good enough form that wins over Springfield and Kansas City are not out of the question. On The Line hereby says farewell to the 2001 Buzz and wishes them luck on that season-ending road trip. |