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by Christopher Gerby The migration of famous and semi-famous tennis players each July is about as close as Schenectady County gets to having a tourist attraction, so July 14th was officially declared "New York Buzz Day". That proclamation made before the match was one of several opportunities for Buzz owner/general manager Nitty Singh to address the crowd. She even threw together an auction following the fourth set, with items up for bid including Lindsay Davenport's shirt. (To the relief of a momentarily nervous Davenport, this was the shirt she wore in the previous night's match.) Lindsay herself finally had to cut the auction short as it was holding up play. "We're trying to concentrate here, Nitty!" barked a half-serious Patrick McEnroe, eager to take the court. With his 4-0 Hamptons and the 3-1 Buzz fighting for first place in the league's Eastern Conference, this meeting was about as serious as Team Tennis can get. First set: women's doubles -- Davenport/De Villiers vs. Krizan/Srebotnik The Slovenian combination of Tina Krizan and Katarina Srebotnik is among the best in World Team Tennis, but they appeared to be in tough against Davenport. The big Californian blasted an ace and a couple nice returns en route to a very quick 2-0 lead. Her partner Nannie de Villiers (reactivated after sitting out Saturday night's win) was the star of Game 3, winning points with her serve, a reflex drop volley, and a game-ending smash. Routine holds from Srebotnik, Davenport, and Krizan advanced the score to 4-2 and left the Buzz on the verge of salting away the evening's opening set. But with De Villiers suddenly unable to buy a first serve, the Hamptons struck back, breaking serve when Krizan laced a forehand winner on a key 40-40 point. A love hold from Srebotnik then forced an unexpected tiebreak...
OVERALL SCORE: HAMPTONS 5, BUZZ 4 Second set: women's singles -- Lindsay Davenport vs. Katarina Srebotnik Davenport's swoon in the second half of the doubles encounter continued in the early stages of set # 2. She forgot the Team Tennis let rule on one point and made a string of unforced errors to trail 0-2. However, an ugly service game from Srebotnik turned things around and Davenport delivered two aces in holding for 2-2. Despite being spurred on by cries of "c'mon Kat!" from Patrick McEnroe, Srebotnik lost two more games, unable to counter Davenport's mighty serve and forehand. Katarina whacked her shoe with her racket after chipping a backhand into the net midway through Game 7, but a long rally on one of those tricky 40-all points ended on a Davenport miscue. Lindsay was eventually able to end the 5-3 set in style with an ace, but she didn't look thrilled with her up-and-down performance. "I'm just not really used to playing points and stuff," she explained after the match. Pointing to her surgically repaired knee, she continued, "It's not a pain in that same area, just my whole leg's not used to what it kind of goes through in a match. Other things are a little weak. I stepped on it funny once. It was OK, but I'm not really sure yet how I'm playing. Just need a little more time to get the rhythm, I think." OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 9, HAMPTONS 8 Third set: mixed doubles -- Bhupathi/Davenport vs. Kendrick/Srebotnik Nominal Hamptons coach Paul Moss gave a certain "bump on a log" aura tonight, so I'm guessing it was actually team owner Patrick McEnroe who took himself out of the lineup for mixed doubles. The reigns were instead instead turned over to 22-year-old American Robert Kendrick, who showed why on the very first point. A lighting fast battle of wills at the net between Kendrick and Mahesh Bhupathi ended with the little-known blonde rifling a swing volley winner. Bhupathi, Kendrick, and Davenport all served well en route to a 2-1 Buzz lead. Srebotnik's woes from singles then carried over to the mixed. She followed a 30-0 lead in Game 4 with, in succession, a double fault, an errant volley, a netted forehand, and another volley error. It was the only break the upstate team needed, as Mahesh and Lindsay went on to confidently serve out a 5-2 victory. Davenport enjoys playing mixed doubles, especially with a wizard like Bhupathi. "He's very fast and covers the net extremely well -- he's all over those balls. He picked up some great volleys tonight, really low hard returns." OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 14, HAMPTONS 10 Fourth set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Robert Kendrick The WTT media guide says Robert Kendrick "plays aggressive serve-volley game"...and it's not kidding. Sporting a red headband, he opened the set with an explosive love hold in which Justin Bower never put a return in play. Unlike the cat-and-mouse Bower vs. Goldstein track meet last night, this battle was all about power. Kendrick continued racking up aces and powerhouse forehand winners, but Bower hung tough, earning a number of free points with his lefty serve. With "Kendo" having squandered the only break chance of the set, they swiftly advanced to a tiebreak...
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 19, HAMPTONS 14 Fifth set: men's doubles -- Bhupathi/Bower vs. Kendrick/McEnroe I had the distinct pleasure of spending the last two sets of tonight's match seated right next to Mahesh Bhupathi's exquisite fiancee, fashion model Shvetha Jaishankar. Although she'd been clutching an issue of Cosmopolitan all evening and thumbing through it whenever the tennis lost her interest, the former Miss India perked up a bit when her man took the court for set 5. The Buzz also looked sharp, with Mahesh and Justin breaking Robert Kendrick for a 2-0 lead. Those dreaded 40-all points keep burning the home team, though. Bhupathi faced one on his serve and lost it with a backhand volley that clipped the tape before fluttering backwards. "We haven't seen your serve yet," a fan told Patrick McEnroe as he settled in for Game 4. "Don't blink, you might miss it," was his joking reply. Devoting most of his time to CBS/ESPN commentary and his duties as U.S. Davis Cup coach, the only competitive tennis Pat plays now is Team Tennis doubles. He looked shaky, falling behind 0-40, although some blame could be put on Robert Kendrick (who botched a routine volley and threw his racket at the net). The Hamptons came all the way back, though, and got to 2-2 when a Bower lob fell just past the baseline. McEnroe's biggest problem was returning Justin Bower's tricky left-handed serve. "Dammit, get it in the court," he loudly admonished himself after one feeble return. "John would have," a fan quipped (referring to Patrick's legendary brother), only to be booed by sympathetic Pat Mac supporters. Mahesh Bhupathi rescued the Buzz from a 30-40 deficit with a pair of winning smashes, getting his normally placid girlfriend a bit psyched up. Alas, Bhupathi would cough up a double fault on break point two games later to give Kendrick and McEnroe a 4-3 edge. The team's owner served it out from there, his young partner clinching the 5-3 win with an acrobatic overhead. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 22, HAMPTONS 19 "It's gonna happen," Patrick McEnroe boasted after umpire Candy Pantano explained the potential supertiebreaker scenario. (If the Hamptons could win three more games in a row, they'd force a first-to-seven points 'breaker.) Justin Bower was next to serve, but things got tense when he and Bhupathi lost the first point. Jaishankar stamped her foot next to me and Buzz team alternate Liezel Huber was leaning so far forward in her chair, it was in danger of tipping over. But order was restored when Bower rocketed an ace and McEnroe missed a couple backhands. Bower closed the door at 40-15, sending the fans home happy with one last service winner. FINAL SCORE: BUZZ 23, HAMPTONS 19 Despite falling a few games short on this occasion, Patrick McEnroe remains a Team Tennis supporter. "It's something that means a lot to me and I enjoy it. It's fun for me to get out and play a little bit. I just like the format. It's great -- a part of tennis that has its niche." The Davis Cup captain still has plenty of time to settle on a roster for September's semifinal against the French (whom he suggests are "maybe a little overconfident") and has no reason to tip his hand at this juncture. "I would make a pretty good guess that Andy (Roddick) will be playing. I think James (Blake) will be part of the team. The doubles is questionable. We've got a lot of guys to choose from, whether it's (Pete) Sampras, whether it's (Todd) Martin, whether it's Blake, whether it's the Bryan brothers. That's gonna be a difficult decision for me. We'll see how things go this summer and how the boys are doing." "I wish I was actually playing more matches," Lindsay Davenport said, summing up her abbreviated Team Tennis experience with a laugh. What's calling her away so soon is a Fed Cup match against Israel in Springfield, Missouri. "We have to be there tomorrow by 5 PM," she said, clearly having memorized rule stickler Billie Jean King's Fed Cup itinerary. After that is a full schedule of hard court events for Davenport, who isn't hoping for too much too soon. "You've gotta keep your expectations low to a certain point after I've been out so long, but on the other hand, I think I can do well still. That's why I'm back out here. I don't know if it'll take a month of playing tournaments to do better or if I'll be able to do well (right away) because I've been able to kinda ease my way into it with Team Tennis and Fed Cup." Lindsay's summer schedule will not include any doubles matches with her good friend Corina Morariu. Coincidentally, though, Corina will be leading the Philadelphia Freedoms into Schenectady on Tuesday evening. |