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by Christopher Gerby A disappointing crowd of approximately 800 had turned out for the New York Buzz's season opener on Monday night, but the stands were nearly packed to capacity as rocket-serving phenom Andy Roddick led the St. Louis Aces into Schenectady. Despite getting shelled 24-8 in their previous match (before Roddick joined them), the Aces were in a bubbly mood right away. Waiting around for action to begin, Olga Barabanschikova and Andrew Florent danced to the tunes playing over the PA system. A longtime fan of "house music," Barabanschikova seemed to particularly enjoy the techno beat of "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas. Roddick joined in with some head bobs during the Kenny Loggins chestnut "Footloose" and, somewhat disturbingly, knew the words to Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The fun continued during the player introductions, with Barabanschikova pretending she'd been goosed by Florent on her way off the St. Louis bench. First set: mixed doubles -- Bhupathi/De Villiers vs. Roddick/Parkinson-Hasler Quirky teammates and squealing female fans met with Roddick's approval, but the evening's opening set saw him begin a running feud with the chair umpire. In the first game, the ump incorrectly called a let and had to correct himself, negating a great return Roddick had alertly made. "That's the first time I did that in a year and you blew it," Andy bellowed before pretending to tackle the umpire. "That was your mulligan, eh? Call was so bad you made a kid cry." The 19-year-old quickly became somewhat annoyed by his own tennis as well, muttering "great doubles expertise there" after one poorly played point. His serves were drawing oohs and ahhs from the crowd, however, and a string of easy holds brought the set to a tiebreak. Fully recovered from Monday's jet lag, Mahesh Bhupathi took over in the 'breaker. He unleashed a service winner, ace, and beautiful fall-away forehand winner to secure a quick 3-0 lead. Nannie de Villiers netted a backhand to make it 3-1, but recently married Holly Parkinson-Hasler followed with an error of her own for 4-1. Facing set point, Roddick drilled a backhand at the feet of De Villiers, whose attempt at a half-volley sailed long. The South African got immediate revenge on the next point, ripping a ball right at Roddick, who could only block it back into the net in self-defense. The 5-2 tiebreak win left De Villiers feeling good about her ability to handle Roddick's vaunted pace. "I think I expected more of his serve, which is quite weird. I mean, he's got a really good serve, but I think I've played enough against the guys not to be too scared of his serve, although I don't think I'd wanna be very close to it." OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 5, ST. LOUIS 4 Second set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Andy Roddick Coming off tough Grand Slam losses to Wayne Arthurs and Greg Rusedski, Roddick had a chance to prove himself against an admittedly less imposing lefty, Justin Bower. While acknowleding that Roddick has "a bomb for a serve" and can "bring Satan's wrath with that forehand," Bower was determined to stand his ground. Roddick didn't make it easy for him in the set's opening game, starting off with a powerful ace and a service winner. Disappointed with the crowd's tepid response, Roddick turned to a section of spectators behind him and said "It's a little quiet over here." He then served a fault and drew some exaggerated cheers from those fans. Roddick held for 1-0, but Bower opened the next game with a service winner of his own, drawing a cry of "a little Bower power" from one fan. Andy found that very amusing and needed a moment to collect himself. Bower remained dead serious and stayed even with the Nebraska native at 2 games apiece. He got a bit of help along the way from a very dodgy line call that had Roddick genuinely livid. "These are the home fans and they're booing," he pointed out to the umpire, to no avail. Forehand winners gave Bower a 0-30 lead in Game 5 and inspired hope that he really could play David to the 13th-ranked Goliath. However, a laser forehand down the line on game point saved Roddick, who edged ahead 3-2. Trailing 30-40 in Game 6, Bower fought off one break point with a second serve that appeared to skid off the line, overwhelming Roddick. Bower followed with an ace and pumped his fist, level again at 3-3. Disputing another call in the next game, Roddick held for 4-3, then took advantage of a couple wild Bower errors to lead 15-40 in Game 8. Bower put away a tricky smash (letting it bounce once first) to stave off the first set point, but steered a forehand just wide on the second. A commendable effort from the streaky South African had fallen just short, by a count of 5 games to 3. OVERALL SCORE: ST. LOUIS 9, NEW YORK 8 Third set: men's doubles -- Bhupathi/Bower vs. Florent/Roddick If he was down about his near-miss in singles, Bower didn't show it in the opening game of men's doubles. He served a pair of aces and held at 15. Roddick matched that with an easy hold of his own, stopping after one point to make a goofy face in teammate Olga Barabanschikova's direction. "I just wanted to see you smile," he explained with a cocky grin. Bhupathi was all business in a love hold for 2-1, but Andy and Olga were at it again in Game 4. After a desperate Bhupathi lob landed on the net cord and fell back to New York's side, Roddick kissed his fingers, touched the tape, and told Barabanschikova "that woulda sucked." Following love holds by Florent and Bower, the Buzz held a 3-2 lead. Justin Bower showed off some impressive athletic ability in Game 6, jumping over a crouching ballboy after fruitlessly chasing a Florent drop volley. He and Bhupathi were also returning serve well enough to reach a 40-all game point against Roddick. A thrilling rally ensued, with the Buzz players hitting mid-court groundstrokes as Roddick and Florent covered the net. A sizzling Bower backhand was finally too much for A-Rod, who missed a volley to surrender the break for 4-2. Bhupathi kept the New York momentum rolling, earning a 40-0 lead with back-to-back aces. St. Louis narrowed the gap to 40-30, but the third set point ended with Bower driving home an overhead smash. The 5-2 loss was a crushing blow for the Aces going into halftime, but Barabanschikova gave Andrew Florent a consolation kiss on the cheek anyway. "Only Florent gets kissed, that's nice," Roddick observed with mock jealousy. Afterwards, Andy was rather sheepish about his failure to win either the first or third set. "I don't play much doubles, as I showed tonight, but it's fun to get out there." OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 13, ST. LOUIS 11 Fourth set: women's singles -- Liezel Huber vs. Olga Barabanschikova Reduced to cheerleaders and warmup partners in the first three sets of the night, Huber and Barabanschikova finally saw on-court action in Set 4. Barabanschikova's first try at Team Tennis singles was a debacle on Monday, when Elena Likhovtseva of Sacramento drubbed her 5-0. Early on it was easy to see how that happened. Olga was missing first serves by wide margins and following them with dreadful powderpuff second serves. Huber wasn't doing much to take advantage, though, and Barabanschikova wound up winning the opening game with a nice forehand winner down the line. As her male teammates hooted and hollared, "Olga B" (as she's billed on the back of her Aces jersey) stuck out her tongue and smiled bashfully. They went with serve to 2-2, when Barabanschikova finally put in a respectable second serve. "That was huge," Roddick embellished, drawing another smile from Barabanschikova. Another down-the-line forehand (her best weapon on this night) ultimately gave the Belarussian a 3-2 lead. Enthusiastic as ever, Roddick screamed out what I think was "give me your number!" Barabanschikova responded with...um...a suggestive gesture involving her tongue. A-Rod buried his head in his hands, laughing hysterically and seeming genuinely embarrassed. Visibly displeased about squandering several chances to break her opponent's serve, Lizel Huber launched an ace to close out a hold for 3-3. The next two games were tests of wills, featuring long, evenly matched rallies. Each went to a game point, but the servers survived, forcing a tiebreak at 4 games all. Huber must have figured out by now that Barabanschikova's backhand was attackable. Three errors off that wing helped put Olga B into a seemingly insurmountable 1-4 deficit. However, she stayed alive with a service winner for 2-4. Barabanschikova found the baseline with a shot in the next rally, forcing an errant Huber reply for 3-4. The South African then completely imploded, coughing up two double faults in a row to lose the tiebreak and set by an identical 5-4 score. It wasn't pretty, but "the Belarussian Bombshell" strutted to the sideline with a win under her belt. After the match, I grabbed Barabanschikova for a quick one-on-one interview. Not surprisingly, the Team Tennis rookie has found the lighthearted WTT atmosphere a perfect fit for personality. "I heard it's a lot of fun, but it's even more fun than I expected. I'm really enjoying it." Less fun have been her last couple seasons on the WTA circuit, which have been marked by long absences and a failure to win any main draw matches. While a foot injury was partially to blame, "I also took some time not because of the injury. I just needed time off and I think it really helped me, because now I'm enjoying it a lot more." Her ranking in desperate need of a boost, Barabanschikova will follow the Team Tennis season by playing some "challengers, just to get some matches, get some confidence." OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 17, ST. LOUIS 16 Fifth set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Huber vs. Barabanschikova/Parkinson-Hasler After weathering the Andy Roddick storm earlier in the evening, all the Buzz had to do was beat a pair of less-than-accomplished women's doubles players to record their first victory of the WTT season. After getting smoked 5-0 on Monday night, Olga and Holly needed all the motivation they could get from their boisterous teammates. They got no help early on from the chair umpire, who interrupted the very first rally of the set by calling "touch" after a Barabanschikova reflex volley. "Touch what? It didn't touch me! It touched the racket," Olga exclaimed. Helped by that bizarre ruling, De Villiers held at love. Nannie was a key player in the second game as well. At 40-all, she nearly decapitated Barabanschikova with a sharply struck backhand volley. De Villiers raised her hand in apology, but must have been glad to grab a 2-0 lead. Game 3 played out much the same way, with De Villiers successfully hitting a ball right at Parkinson-Hasler on game point. Holly and Nannie exchanged service holds as New York took a 4-1 lead in the set and a commanding 21-17 edge in the overall score. The wind had gone out of the St. Louis sails, but Barabanschikova extended the match, holding at 30. Another bad double fault found Huber trailing 15-30 on her serve, but it was the last point the Aces would win. At 40-30, Huber caught the baseline with a forehand volley, wrapping up a satisfying victory for the home team. FINAL SCORE: NEW YORK 22, ST. LOUIS 18 If the night's unofficial MVP wasn't Mahesh Bhupathi, it was surely Nannie de Viliers, who played a key role in mixed and women's doubles. "We just wanted to finish it off," she said of the 5-2 win with Huber. "We knew we were leading by one going into the last set, so all we had to do really was win, but we wanna do better. We wanna make sure of it. We didn't want it to come down to a tiebreaker in the end." Back at the .500 mark following this victory, the Buzz now hit the road for a rematch with Hartford. They'll return to Schenectady on July 13th for the first of two meetings with Paul Goldstein, Maria Sharapova, and the rest of the Delaware Smash. Of course, the big story was still Andy Roddick, who'd won over the fans with his smart-aleck comments and willingness to sign countless autographs. "It's a little more relaxed and you can kinda get into it with the crowd a little bit, interact, so it's a lot of fun for me out there," he said of the Team Tennis experience. "I'd like to see regular tennis a little more enthusiastic, more fun like this. It's a good time, great atmosphere." Despite the cocky swagger he displayed on the court, Roddick tried to downplay his phenom hype. "I like to think I'm part of the next generation of American tennis players. No one person can do it on their own." Fitting words on a night when the doubles sets made the difference. |