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by Christopher Gerby No, ladies and gentlemen, Anna Kournikova has never won a professional singles title. Yes, a back injury has kept her off the tennis tour for more than a year. No, she does not merit being called "legendary," as the PA announcer referred to her at one point on Thursday night. But with her cover girl looks and crossover stardom, "Special K" sure can attract an audience. Even with ticket prices jacked up as high as $45 (with the worst seat in the house going for $30), the New York Buzz drew their biggest crowd of the season thus far, by a good margin, for their match against the visiting Kansas City Explorers. Schenectady's MVP Stadium wasn't entirely sold out, but for the first time in 2004, there was a genuine buzz (pun intended) around the premises. Explorers owner Mel Launius demanded a seat in one of the sponsor boxes, directly behind the Kansas City bench. Before long, a pair of police officers were also in that area, making sure no harm came to the visiting glamour girl. Pre-match festivities included the awarding of a certificate to Miss Kournikova -- some kind of "proclamation" the local county legislature doles out whenever a big tennis star passes through. Anna greeted this honor with a confused shrug. As she warmed up for the evening's first set, the Enrique Iglesias hit "Escape" was piped through the sound system, inspiring Kournikova to smile and lip sync along. Yes, "Escape" was the music video in which she appeared. No, she will neither confirm nor deny rumors about having married Iglesias. Let's get to the actual tennis, shall we? First set: mixed doubles -- Bower/Kutuzova vs. MacPherson/Kournikova Coach Jolene Watanabe made her first lineup change of the year for this one, pulling a slumping Bryanne Stewart from the mixed doubles rotation. Viktoriya Kutuzova got off to an iffy start in her place, losing her initial service game to fall behind 1-2. After that, all eyes were on Kournikova...if they hadn't been already. The Russian opened her service game with a double fault and was summarily broken at love. Semi-retired doubles specialist David MacPherson was putting on something of a clinic with his nifty angled touch shots, but he wasn't getting a great deal of help from a rusty Kournikova. Already trailing 3-4, Kournikova botched another service game, air mailing her second and third double faults (all landing long). That last miscue handed a 5-3 set to the home team. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 5, EXPLORERS 3 Second set: women's doubles -- Kutuzova/Stewart vs. Kournikova/Talaja Those college aged hooligans known as "the Buzz Boys" filed into their usual seats for the second set. After making a couple mild Anna-baiting comments, they were summoned by Buzz owner Nitty Singh, who essentially told them to knock off the negative stuff. They remained enthusiastic as ever, though, and soon revealed the B-U-Z-Z painted on their respective bare chests. Thriving on the support, Viktoriya Kutuzova and Bryanne Stewart sprinted out to a 3-0 advantage, increasing New York's overall edge to a commendable 8-3. Kournikova finally did something right to open Game 4, whipping a forehand return down the line for a clean winner. "Alright!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air in celebration. The crowd ate it up, but the Buzz Boys retaliated with a chant of "cheer for the Buzz!" Demonstrating somewhat better form than her blonde counterpart, Kutuzova overcame a double fault to hold for 4-0. There was another highlight for Kournikova in Game 5: she made a nice poach, knocking off a backhand volley and jogging around with a raised fist. on the whole, though, she was not playing good tennis. In a less charitable mood, you could say what one of my colleagues in the press seating area blurted out: "she's terrible." Kansas City got on the board when Silvija Talaja held for 1-4, but Bryanne Stewart quickly closed out the 5-1 set with a service winner. The clocks will all run backwards and the sheep will have two heads, for the winless New York Buzz suddenly found themselves with a whopping six-game lead. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 10, EXPLORERS 4 Third set: women's singles -- Viktoriya Kutuzova vs. Silvija Talaja "Hey guys, no," Nitty Singh said to the Buzz Boys early in set number three. They'd really outdone themselves now, putting on self-described "man bras" -- coconut shell bikini tops similar to what Kournikova wears in her annual calendar. They were certainly amusing themselves, but their antics did nothing to distract WTA veteran Silvija Talaja. The Croatian came out firing on all cylinders here, blunting young Viktoriya Kutuzova's power game with impeccable drop shots and great defensive scrambling. Talaja opened up a 4-0, 40-15 lead before the Buzz's promising teenager could make a dent. A nifty passing shot allowed Kutuzova to break for 1-4, but it was too little, too late. Facing a set point in Game 6, Viktoriya missed her first serve and was called for a foot fault on the second. Kutuzova stood frozen, staring at the service linesman in disbelief. A weird end to a very sharp 5-1 win for Talaja. OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 11, EXPLORERS 9 Fourth set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Alex Kim During the intermission following the third set, an 11-year-old contest winner named Dylan Scott took the court and played a surprisingly competitive point with Kournikova. Granted, she was swinging at out balls to keep the rally going, but it wasn't a bad effort from the boy, whom Anna later described as "adorable." As a matter of fact, that little exhibition almost lasted longer than the first four games of men's singles combined. Justin Bower was serving lefty rockets (including three aces in one game), but unassuming Alex Kim was holding serve just as easily. The players switched sides at 2-2, while Kournikova gave a brief shoulder rub to inactive teammate Rachel McQuillan. One of the Buzz Boys shouted "You're my hero, Justin!" as Bower came out for Game 5. He built up a 40-0 lead for his loyal fans, but then threw in a pair of unforced errors and muttered "great shot" as Kim passed him with a forehand. The ensuing winner-take-all game point was the longest of the set, ending when Bower meekly sent a backhand into the net. That was all the help 25-year-old Kim needed. He locked up a 5-2 win of the set with a service winner, pumping his fist as he sprinted to the Kansas City bench. So much for that Buzz lead. OVERALL SCORE: EXPLORERS 14, BUZZ 13 Fifth set: men's doubles -- Bower/Rudman vs. Kim/MacPherson With just one game separating the two squads in the overall score, the final outcome would hinge on men's doubles. This set started much like the one before it: lots of short, bang-bang points, nearly all of them going with serve. However, at 3 games all, the Explorers opened up some daylight against Shaun Rudman's serve. At 15-30, that wily old Aussie David MacPherson guided a perfectly timed forehand return down the line to earn break points. One was all they'd need: Rudman was long with a backhand volley on the very next point, falling behind 3-4. Serving for the match, Alex Kim dropped the opening point of Game 8 by netting a routine volley. Luck was on Kansas City's side, though, when a MacPherson volley trickled off the tape, falling in for 15-15. Bower took a big swing at a forehand on the next point, missing wide and responding by angrily hitting his own hat over the net. A lunging return by Rudman was good for 30-30, but a service winner from Kim brought up match point. The Stanford alum threw a serve out wide to Rudman's forehand. A call of "fault" was made, but the umpire overruled, giving Kim credit for a match-ending ace. Practically inventing new and unusual ways to lose, the Buzz thereby dropped this deciding set 5-3. FINAL SCORE: EXPLORERS 19, BUZZ 16 To make a long story short, Anna Kournikova played dismally and the New York Buzz were even worse. "It wasn't the best match. I think I personally played better on the first day," Anna said, referring to her performance on Tuesday night against the New York Sportimes. "I was a little sore coming out, playing the second day, but our team did really well. The guys played really well and we won, so that's all that counts." The prognosis for Kournikova's chronically aching back wasn't much better than her tennis on this night. "Tomorrow, I'll probably be very, very sore, like I was after the first match. It's really hard to say." Kournikova would like to get in some singles action before the end of her Team Tennis stint, but claims that situation is beyond her control. "Hopefully, but that's up to the coach. The team makes that final decision about an hour before the matches start, so I really don't know." After the match, Kournikova patiently sat at a table on the court, signing autographs for at least 100 fans. A WTT representative did her best to limit the pandemonium, issuing stern orders like "clear the court!" and "do not let another soul in line." Meanwhile, Viktoriya Kutuzova signed more than a few autographs herself in a quieter corner of the court, smiling broadly despite her lopsided loss in singles. Asked about the young Ukranian, Kournikova said, "I think she's got great potential. I've never seen her before. I think she's obviously young and she was hitting the ball really, really hard." Anna and Viktoriya may have matching hairstyles, but the elder Russian dismissed any similarity in their playing styles. "We really play different games. Viktoriya is your typical every-single-ball-is-really-really-hard and she goes for it all the time. I take the net more and play a more versatile style of game with a lot of different angles and volleys. I think she was just playing from the baseline." Perhaps fearing that came out a little harsh, Kournikova added, "That's just what I thought today." Almost easy to overlook in the midst of all the Kournikova fanfare was a staggering collapse by the New York Buzz, who turned a 10-4 lead into a 19-16 loss. It already looks like a wasted season for the squad, now sporting a hideous record of 0-4. There's plenty of blame to go around, given Kutuzova's streaky play, Justin Bower's frustration-laden slump, and very limited contributions from Bryanne Stewart. However, the real $64,000 question is whether being Bower's friend and coach is a good enough excuse for Shaun Rudman to have a full-time spot on the team. Rudman did a nice job filling in for injured Don Johnson on short notice last summer, but the career journeyman has never cracked the world's Top 100 in doubles, nor the Top 600 in singles. He's lost all five sets he's played this season and doesn't exactly whip the crowd into a frenzy with his pleasant-bordering-on-catatonic personality. Is it too late for the Buzz to sign that Dylan Scott kid? |