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by Christopher Gerby The New York Buzz bring a new look into the 2003 season of World Team Tennis. The defending Eastern Conference champions are without doubles stalwarts Mahesh Bhupathi and Liezel Huber. Eric Kutner has also departed after taking Coach of the Year honors last season. In their stead are Don Johnson (former # 1 doubles player in the world), Shenay Perry (a promising 19-year-old), and Jolene Watanabe (the first female head coach in Team Tennis history). South Africans Justin Bower and Nannie de Villiers -- in their third and fourth year, respectively, as members of the Buzz -- round out the roster. Also due to come on board is the legendary Boris Becker, who starts an abbreviated stint with the team on Wednesday. First things first: a season opening tilt with the cross-state rival New York Sportimes. Formerly known as the Hamptons, the team keeps player/co-owner Patrick McEnroe occupied when he isn't coaching the U.S. Davis Cup squad or doing color commentary on TV. As a matter of fact, he had just arrived from Wimbledon, where his duties left little time to prepare for on-court action. The tall order facing his Sportimes looked even more daunting when one considered his teammates: semi-retired Ellis Ferreira, relatively untested Bea Bielik, and a very inexperienced 17-year-old from China named Shuai Peng. At least this ragtag bunch has a colorful coach -- Joe "Joey G" Guiliano, whose accomplishments include guiding Mirjana Lucic to the 1998 Wimbledon semifinals. Rain in the area pushed the scheduled 7:00 start time back to 7:15. Another shower began shortly after the player introductions, further delaying matters until 7:45. "Just like Wimbledon," McEnroe remarked to the fans with a smile. While inconvenient, the rain did little to dampen team spirit on the Sportimes bench. McEnroe/Peng and Bielik/Ferreira shared positive little fist bumps as their men's doubles team prepared to take the court. P-Mac then jokingly asked "Coach, what should we do?" and got the following bit of Yoda-like wisdom from Guiliano: "Hit the ball over the net." First set: men's doubles: Bower/Johnson vs. E Ferreira/P McEnroe For the rusty McEnroe and Ferreira, hitting the ball over the net might prove easier said than done. Making matters worse for the visiting team was some early heckling from the Schenectady crowd, which is never shy about getting involved. "You can't be serious," one fan intoned, paraphrasing John McEnroe's signature line. Sympathetic to his opponent's plight, Don Johnson asked, "Ever heard that one before?" McEnroe sarcastically grumbled about the "very original crowd," then promptly ripped a winning return to earn his team's first point. Johnson held serve comfortably, though, and Justin Bower followed suit for an early 2-1 lead. Ferreira and McEnroe each have Grand Slam doubles titles to their credit, but they looked every bit of their combined 70 years in Game 4. Reflexing a backhand volley long on break point, McEnroe surrendered serve and handed the Buzz a 3-1 edge. The unusual lefty/lefty combination of Bower and Johnson closed matters out from there. Clicking very nicely indeed in their debut outing, they rolled to a 5-2 win without facing a break point. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 5, SPORTIMES 2 Second set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Patrick McEnroe Fresh off reaching the finals of a satellite event in Pittsburgh, Justin Bower figured to be in better form than a jet-lagged Patrick McEnroe. Right on cue, he broke his elder's serve, winning a very nice side-to-side rally on game point. However, Bower followed with a sloppy service game of his own for 1-all. Both players were visibly frustrated, with Patrick eerily mirroring the intense perfectionism of his brother. He screamed "hit it!" after a weak backhand error and "yes!" after a cross-court winner, eagerly spurring himself on. A fortunate bounce off a net cord allowed McEnroe to scratch out a hold for 2-1 and he expressed his gratitude by literally kissing the tape. Bower rained down impressive left-handed serves for the duration of the set, but McEnroe found a groove of his own, dropping only one more service point en route to a tiebreak at 4 games all. The opening point featured the best rally of the evening, an all-court scramble fest which ended when Bower drove a backhand pass into the net. It was a sign of things to come. A missed forehand return, double fault, and sliced backhand error put Bower behind the 8 ball at 1-4. Several set points in hand, McEnroe failed to dig out an awkward volley, pushing it into the net for 4-2. Bower had new life...but not for long. Justin bricked a backhand to end the 5-2 tiebreak loss. McEnroe triumphantly pumped his fist and got a congratulatory hug from Coach Guiliano, who quietly made a little choking gesture to indicate what he made of Bower's less-than-stellar performance in the tiebreak. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 9, SPORTIMES 7 Third set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Perry vs. Bielik/Peng From a sociopolitical standpoint, the pair playing women's doubles for the Buzz this season form a nice little story: a South African (Nannie de Villiers) partnered with an African-American (Shenay Perry). This doesn't break new ground -- Amanda Coetzer and Lori McNeil played together for years -- but it would have raised eyebrows in the days of apartheid. Meanwhile, a pair of Team Tennis rookies looked to make a splash for the Sportimes. Shuai Peng seemed particularly excited, grinning from ear-to-ear as she got last minute instructions from her teammates and coach. On serve at 1-2, the Sportimes' youngsters showed their inexperience, standing frozen together at the net as a Perry pass floated by for a clean winner. "If you're not sure, hit it," Guiliano told them. Peng warmed to the task, holding for 2-2 with a nice service winner. In Game 5, it was Perry's turn to look green. She has pretty good form at the net, but her timing was all off. A day after her 19th birthday, she committed three volley errors in dropping serve to 2-3. (Perry later attributed her iffy doubles showing to "a little bit of nerves.") Taking the lead brought out the best in Bielik and Peng, who played very good doubles the rest of the way. Bea's "death to all flying things" overhead was particularly impressive in a 5-3 victory which tied the cumulative match tally. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 12, SPORTIMES 12 Fourth set: women's singles: Shenay Perry vs. Bea Bielik They may not be household names at this point, but Shenay Perry and Bea Bielik just might represent the future of American tennis. Bielik's big, aggressive game carried her to the third round of last year's U.S. Open and Perry recently cracked the top 200 by winning a challenger event in Minnesota. Bielik looked poised to draw first blood, opening up a 0-30 lead on Perry's serve in Game 4. A couple missed returns cost her, though, and Shenay rifled a nice cross-court forehand winner to hold for 2-2. Perry absolutely spanked a forehand winner to earn break points in Game 5. Bielik saved the first by swinging a powerful ace out wide, but she then coughed up a double fault to lose serve. Bielik grimaced and bounced her racket, now trailing 2-3. The Long Island resident continued to struggle, making one forehand error after another as Perry held for 4-2. Bielik held easily for 3-4, but it was too little too late. I don't love Perry's rubber-armed, back-scratching service motion, but she flashed some nice all-court ability in this set, knocking off a high forehand volley to clinch it 5-3. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 17, SPORTIMES 15 Fifth set: mixed doubles: De Villiers/Johnson vs. Bielik/Ferreira Mixed doubles was a cornerstone of the Buzz efforts last season, but would Don Johnson (the South Carolina native, not the "Miami Vice" star) find the kind of success with Nannie de Villiers that she had with ex-partner Mahesh Bhupathi? If the opening game of this set was a harbinger, Coach Watanabe may have cause for concern. In all fairness, though, Ellis Ferreira was the one to blame for Johnson dropping serve. The most undersated member of the Sportimes let his racket do the talking, as he ripped four winners (the most one player can rack up in a single game of World Team Tennis). Battling back after a dodgy set of singles, Bea Bielik helped Ferreira extend the lead to 4-2. Unable to get that one early service break back, De Villiers grew increasingly upset. She threw her racket after lofting an unsuccessful lob and argued with the umpire over a questionable line call. Nannie did hold for 3-4, though, forcing Bielik to serve out the set. The 2002 NCAA champion saw a 40-0 lead shrink to 40-30, but escaped when Johnson blocked a return wide. The lone break Ferreira had played so well to earn was the key to a 5-3 mixed doubles victory for the Sportimes. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 20, SPORTIMES 20 Considerable confusion followed, as even four-year WTT veteran Nannie de Villiers needed a refresher course on the league's Supertiebreaker format. It's a continuation of the final event (mixed doubles in this case), with the first team to 7 points prevailing. Jolene Watanabe won the coin toss for her team and Don Johnson elected to serve first. Here is how the match-deciding action proceeded, point by point...
In rather improbable fashion, the New York Sportimes eked out a nail-biting victory. Earning unofficial MVP honors was lefty Ellis Ferreira, whose heroics in mixed doubles made the difference. On the flipside, goat horns would obviously be bestowed upon Don Johnson. His easygoing demeanor is sure to make him a big hit with his teammates and the Schenectady fans, but back-to-back double faults in a supertiebreaker don't make for a great first impression. "I let my team down," he admitted after the match. "I thought we had it. Somebody just put the brakes on, didn't they?" Johnson and the rest of the Buzz get their shot at redemption on Wednesday, with Boris Becker leading them against the Hartford FoxForce. |