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by Christopher Gerby After mixed doubles losses ended a pair of heartbreaking home defeats for the New York Buzz, they hoped to recover with a visit to the cross-state rival New York Sportimes. The result: the Buzz fell at the wire by, you guessed it, losing a mixed doubles supertiebreaker. Nevertheless, the 0-3 Buzz managed to draw the biggest crowd in team history when they came back to Schenectady on Friday evening. Granted, a few of the 3,000 spectators who filed into MVP Stadium may have been there to see the world's 6th-ranked player, a fella named Andy Roddick. In fact, the rocket-serving Nebraska native got the full on rock star treatment, with throngs of teenage girls taking his picture, requesting his autograph, and basically swooning over his every move. My standard perch in a sponsor's box directly behind the visiting team's chairs was ground zero for Roddick Mania. "He's my husband," declared one young lady who'd stepped in for a closer look. "I love him! I love him! I love him!" Even Roddick's opponents looked a tad starstruck. Shenay Perry and Nannie de Villiers both made liberal use of their cameras while Andy practiced for the match. Following a disappointing semifinal loss at Wimbledon, this laid-back star turn was just what the doctor ordered. "Well, the good thing about Team Tennis is it's not life or death," Roddick said beforehand. "You just kinda roll with it and you're out here to have fun, which is the important thing." First set: men's doubles -- Bower/Johnson vs. De Jager/Roddick Partnered with fun-loving John-Laffnie de Jager (a veteran of eight WTT seasons), Roddick got into the light-hearted spirit right away. When the DJ who chooses music clips between points dusted off "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies, Roddick was beside himself. "How about a little Lionel Richie next? And then followed by some Barry Manilow," he sarcastically suggested. This bit of levity made all of the local sportscasts and had the fans eating out of Roddick's hand. After the match, I asked if he was satisfied with the variety of rock and hip hop which followed. "Yeah, I asked him to step up his game a little bit, bring something to the table here!" The harder edged tunes fit the no-holds-barred display of power which punctuated the men's doubles event. A-Rod's huge serves, forehands, and overhead smashes were countered with considerable force by Buzz lefties Justin Bower and Don Johnson, who faced nary a break point en route to a 3-2 lead. Game 6 proved to be crucial, with a nice scrambling backhand winner by Bower helping the Buzz to a winner-take-all game point on Roddick's serve. Andy double faulted, putting the Aces in a 2-4 hole. Aided by a picture perfect Johnson drop shot, Bower held serve at love to close out the opening set. "I'm not much of a doubles player," Roddick admitted afterwards, echoing sentiments he espoused in his first visit to Schenectady last year. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 5, ACES 2 Second set: women's singles -- Shenay Perry vs. Julia Vakulenko Already playing second fiddle on this evening, Shenay Perry of the Buzz and Julia Vakulenko of the Aces did little to captivate the crowd in the early stages of their bout. Perry sprayed errors to drop her opening service game, then had a set-tying break giftwrapped for her by Vakulenko. A flukey ace which dribbled off the net cord seemed to settle Perry down as she held at love for a 2-1 lead. Two games later, Perry got another only-in-WTT let ace. "You've gotta stop doing that," Roddick remarked to Perry, who grinned sheepishly before holding for 3-2. Vakulenko is a promising young Ukranian, but she lost the plot in Game 6: a double fault and two forehand errors gave Perry a big chance at 15-40. The next point was an absolute classic. Following an exchange at the net, Perry sprinted back to track down a lob volley and somehow whipped a cross-court backhand squash shot with her back turned to the net. It just barely missed the sideline, but drew the biggest ovation since Roddick's pre-match introduction. Oozing positive body language, Perry ultimately did break for 4-2, then held to lock up another 5-2 win for the Buzz. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 10, ACES 4 Third set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Andy Roddick A lingering stomach injury left Justin Bower less than 100% heading into his singles matchup with Andy Roddick. This was of little concern to a girl who surreptitously snapped a picture of Roddick's backside while he was tying his shoes, inspiring squeals of delight from her fellow groupies. However, Bower did have his supporters. A group of back row rowdies (very loud young men who looked like they'd stepped off the set of the Porky's remake Howard Stern is producing) frequently chanted "Bower Power!" in unison between points. The fluid South African did his best to keep pace, but Roddick was overpowering him in the early going. Grinding his opponent down with deep topspin forehands, Roddick jumped out to a 2-0 advantage. Bower got on the board with a love hold, but the score quickly advanced to 3-1 behind an absolutely wicked Roddick ace. It could not have been much slower than the 149 mph bomb he unleashed at Queen's Club last month. The bomb analogy sounded about right to Bower. "I think I feel like a lot of the soldiers in Iraq feel like: bullets flying at you," Justin said after the match. A well-played hold got Bower to 2-3, but Roddick served his way out of a bit of trouble to pull ahead 4 games to 2. At 30-30 in Game 7, the pair thrilled the fans with the longest rally seen in Schenectady all season. Mixing power drives with off-pace junk, the pair moved from side to side like dueling metronomes for approximately 30 strokes before Bower finally netted a ball which had skimmed off the tape. Exhausted and happy to milk the moment, Roddick took a seat in a linesman's chair and temporarily handed his racket to a fan, soaking in the considerable applause. When play finally resumed, a Bower double fault ended the 5-2 set. "He's always got the two big guns. The serve-forehand combination is vicious," said a shell-shocked Bower. "My mom told me growing up she walked uphill both ways to school. That's what it feels like playing this guy." I asked Justin if his very enthusiastic gaggle of chanting fans helped at all. "Yeah, it's great. It's my third year here and I've had two good seasons. Me and Mahesh (Bhupathi) played really well last year, so I think I'm starting to build a little bit of a fan base. I think they just wanna see me do well, you know?" Alas, being injured did nothing to help his already long odds against Roddick. "It's frustrating when I can't really hit my serve and I can't really coil into the forehand. Those are my two biggest shots. It's just frustrating. I just wanna come out here and be able to play my best game. I'm not saying I would have done any better at all, but it's nice to be able to feel like you can do what you wanna do and trust your instincts out there." Nevertheless, the 25-year-old feels optimistic about the future. "I've got a new coach and a whole new team around me. It's like literally starting from scratch again in my career. I've just come back from six months off, so I look at this as the perfect opportunity to see where my game is and what needs to be worked on." OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 12, ACES 9 Fourth set: mixed doubles -- De Villiers/Johnson vs. Arendt/Roddick If the Buzz were to finally have a successful round of mixed doubles, Nannie de Villiers and Don Johnson would have to fend off Nicole Arendt (a winner of 16 doubles titles in her pro career) and the ever-popular Andy Roddick, who served big in the set's opening game. With her partner facing a break point in Game 2, Nannie de Villiers dumped a routine backhand volley. It was deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra might say. Things were really looking up for the Aces, now trailing by just one game in the overall score. Unfortunately for St. Louis, Arendt is about a month shy of her 34rd birthday and has left her best tennis in the rearview mirror. She committed a double fault and a volley error in Game 3, which was won by Johnson with a spectacular half-volley reflex winner. That earned a "too good" comment from Roddick and a "Nannie/Johnson" chant from the back row rowdies. Don looked up and gave them an enthusiastic fist pump, back on serve at 1-2. The inspired Johnson ended Game 4 with a hefty smash. Roddick unsuccessfully tried to climb into the stands to run down that ball. Love holds by the men took the score to 3-3. Arendt struggled on serve again, but Roddick bailed her out with a winning volley on game point. The back row rowdies now turned their attention to Nannie de Villiers, who's having a miserable season so far and needs all the help she can get. The seemingly inebirated quartet actually wound up getting Roddick's attention and he jovially shouted, "Next round's on me, boys!" After back-to-back double faults in the middle of the game, De Villiers steeled her nerve, found some first serves when she desperately needed them, and forced the night's first tiebreak...
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 17, ACES 13 Fifth set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Perry vs. Arendt/Vakulenko Andy Roddick wasn't done entertaining the fans. After a dodgy call in the opening game of women's doubles, he attempted to remove the umpire's glasses. Otherwise the games ticked by fairly uneventfully, save for a creative fan combining Nannie and Shenay's names to coin the cheer "way to go, SheNannie!" After all four players took care of their opening service games, Perry smacked three winners in a love hold for 3-2. Shenay was in truly impressive form tonight, which is more than can be said for Julia Vakulenko. After double faulting twice in a row to bring up break point, Vakulenko netted a volley. With the Buzz women now up 4-2, one of the back row rowdies shouted, "Warm up the bus!" Indeed, the match would only last one more game. Nannie put in a good first serve on match point, Arendt blocked it back into the net, and the New York Buzz had their first win of the 2003 season. FINAL SCORE: BUZZ 22, ACES 15 "Finally! We've been waiting for that the whole season," exclaimed Coach Jolene Watanabe after the overdue victory. Shenay Perry, the night's unofficial MVP, called it "a big confidence booster. We came in a little bit more relaxed and we got the job done." And in his Carolina drawl, Don Johnson said, "We didn't know what was gonna happen. Andy's such a threat. He's such a talent. And for us to come out and win, it's like a monkey off the back." While the relieved Buzz embark on a 3-match, 6-day road trip, Andy Roddick is finally about to get some time off. After making his last Team Tennis appearance of the season on Saturday night, Roddick will "go see my brothers, my niece, and my nephew in Texas." A week after that, he'll be right back out on the ATP circuit, playing in Indianapolis. "I'm young, you know. Who needs rest?" It may not have been a fruitful night for his St. Louis Aces, but "I tried my best. As far as singles went, I was very happy. It maybe didn't go the way we wanted, but I think we had a lot of fun and I hope the crowd did also." If A-Rod had any doubt about the good time the fans had, all he had to do was turn around and look at the giddy teenage girls eagerly awaiting his autograph as he spoke those words. |