Schenectady County Electrics vs. Hartford FoxForce
by Christopher Gerby
Despite late afternoon rains that delayed the start of play for 35
minutes, a good-sized crowd attended Monday night's match between
Schenectady and Hartford. After splitting their first two matches of
the season, the Electrics dropped a pair on the road. They fell
Friday in Idaho (on a "lightning fast" court, according to doubles
specialist Brent Haygarth) and suffered a Saturday night loss in
Sacramento which Haygarth admitted was "ugly." Aiming to give the
team a shot in the arm was living legend Martina Navratilova,
beginning her second season as a member of the Electrics. She was
greeted with all the pomp you might expect, including an embarassingly
drawn out introduction. Navratilova could only laugh and bury her
head in her hands as team DJ/announcer "Dr. Sound" played the kind of
music one would associate with the arrival of royalty.
First set -- men's doubles: Haygarth/Hill vs. J Blake/M Jensen
A pair of players who have fraternal links on the ATP Tour
started Hartford's effort. James Blake (younger brother of Thomas)
and Murphy Jensen (younger brother of Luke) took on Schenectady's
Brent Haygarth and Michael Hill. The very first serve of the set
-- delivered by Hill -- caught the net cord and trickled over for the
kind of flukey ace you'll only see in Team Tennis. "Dr. Sound"
declared it "a sign from above" and Hill went on to hold serve at
love. The set continued on serve to 3-2, when Hill gave his team a
0-30 advantage with a backhand winner down the line. However, Blake
won four service points in a row to save the game and tie the set.
Game 7 went to deuce (which is a single winner-take-all "game point"
in Team Tennis) and went to Schenectady on a winning Hill smash.
"Here we go," Nannie de Villiers encouragingly shouted from the
sidelines. Navratilova also chimed in with a "right here,"
reflecting her wish for a set-winning break of Jensen. The usually
antic-prone Murphy had been quite subdued throughout the set, aside
from his saying "Thanks, sweetie pie" a few times to one of the ball
girls. He was playing pretty well and managed to roll through an
easy hold to even the set at 4-4 and necessitate a tiebreak. However,
that's when Mike Hill took over. The Aussie delivered an ace, a
service winner, and a pair of winning volleys as Schenectady grabbed a
4-1 lead in the 'breaker. Facing several set points, Blake pushed a
forehand return wide to seal the deal. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 5,
HARTFORD 4
Second set -- men's singles: Michael Hill vs. James Blake
After marking himself as a potential star during two seasons at
Harvard, James Blake turned pro last year. Though his results have
been spotty, he figured to be a slight favorite against Michael Hill.
However, his struggles in the doubles tiebreak continued as the
singles set began. Blake double faulted twice as he was broken at 15.
Undeterred, the 20-year-old then got his flashy, appealing game on
track. Blake reeled off four successful games in a row, ripping
forehand winners while alternately chipping and coming over his
one-handed backhand. Hill served well in a love hold for 2-4, but was
looking relatively slow and mechanical compared to his younger opponent.
Hill took Game 7 to a critical game point, but his forehand return of
a Blake second serve went long to end the set. Whatever momentum
the Electrics held at the start of the set had evaporated. OVERALL
SCORE: HARTFORD 9, SCHENECTADY 7
Third set -- mixed doubles: De Villiers/Navratilova vs. Horn/Mattek
The moment the fans had been waiting for arrived as recent Hall of
Fame inductee Martina Navratilova took the court for Set #3. However,
it was Nannie de Villiers who served first for the home team, staking
them to a 1-0 lead. At that point, the pressure shifted to 15-year-old
Bethanie Mattek, an American prodigy making her very first World Team
Tennis appearance. The circumstances might have been daunting enough even
without looking across the net and seeing a 19-time Wimbledon champion.
Mattek tossed in a pair of double faults and was ultimately broken
when she couldn't handle a Navratilova passing shot. Mattek looked
better in the following game -- taking the first two points with a
clean forehand pass and a swinging backhand volley winner -- but De
Villiers rallied to hold for a 3-0 lead. The set's remaining
service games were fairly routine. Liezel Horn got her team on the
board at 1-3 and was also instrumental in Mattek's hold for 2-4, but
her errant return of a Navratilova serve ended the 5-2 frame. Martina
had missed one easy forehand volley midway through the set, but
otherwise looked good as her team regained the lead. OVERALL SCORE:
SCHENECTADY 12, HARTFORD 11
Fourth set -- women's singles: Nannie de Villiers vs. Bethanie Mattek
Never having been higher than 172 in the WTA Tour's singles rankings,
Nannie de Villiers admitted it was "odd" that she got the call to
play singles instead of Martina Navratilova. Early on, however, it was
looking like a wise call. Bethanie Mattek sliced a backhand wide to
end the first game and De Villiers tacked on a service hold for a 2-0
lead. Mattek is only 5 foot 4 and looks as young as she is, but she
showed off a pretty good serve in the next game, a hold for 1-2. De
Villiers (who, like Navratilova, was wearing shorts rather than a
skirt) barreled through Game 4 at love to snare a 3-1 advantage. At
that point, Hartford coach Paul Assaiante decided it was time for a
change. Teams can make one substitution per match in WTT and in this
case it was Liezel Horn coming on to spell Mattek. It was an abrupt
end to what surely had to be a disappointing debut for the young
Minnesota native, but she got reassuring pats on the back from her
coach and teammates.
There are some holes in Horn's singles game (including a dangerously
high ball toss), but she came armed with an extraordinary amount of
energy and enthusiasm. Liezel smiled broadly after holding for 2-3.
She then got to 30-40 against the De Villiers serve, putting away a
smash and virtually throwing her entire body into a celebratory fist
pump. De Villiers sent a backhand just wide on break point, bringing
the set to a 3-3 deadlock. Leading 40-30 in Game 8, Horn put away a
high forehand volley, leaped into the air, and ran to the Hartford
bench to get some high fives. Suddenly De Villiers had dropped
three games in a row and needed to hold just to stay alive in the
set. Trailing 30-40, Nannie made a lunging attempt at a drop volley,
but the ball landed just wide. Excited as she'd been throughout her
four-straight-game comeback effort, Horn's reaction to winning the
set was no surprise. She broke into a full sprint, high-fived James
Blake, and engaged Murphy Jensen in a hug. Horn's regarded as a
doubles specialist and wasn't even supposed to play in the singles
set, but in one fell swoop she'd managed to steal the spotlight and
put the visting FoxForce back in the lead. OVERALL SCORE: HARTFORD
16, SCHENECTADY 15
Fifth set -- mixed doubles: Haygarth/Navratilova vs. J Blake/Horn
Electrics' owner/general manager Nitty Singh took the break between
sets as an opportunity to make a speech about how glad she was to
welcome Navratilova back to the team. "If we could have one person to
represent Planet Earth," Singh declared in the speech's hyperbolic
final line, "it would be Martina." Of more immediate concern was
the fifth set, with the match's overall outcome hanging in the balance.
Brent Haygarth and James Blake matched holds for 1-1. Navratilova
had a 30-15 lead in the following game, but Blake went airborne for a
winning volley to 30-30 and Navratilova missed two consecutive low
volleys to break herself. Schenectady nearly broke right back, but
Haygarth bungled a volley on game point to fall behind 1-3. The
balding South African redeemed himself in a love hold for 2-3 and
ripped a forehand winner down the line to gain a 15-30 edge against
Blake's serve. The following point was a classic, all four players
drilling shots and Navratilova even reflexing back a Blake smash
before Horn finally netted a volley. Blake got to 30-40 with an
ace, but was less fortunate on the second break point. A backhand
return from Navratilova floated over Horn's racquet and landed in,
tying the set at 3.
Martina wasn't about to be broken for the second time in this set --
the lefty smacked a service winner to hold at 15 for a 4-3 edge.
Hartford took back the overall lead when Horn held for 4-4. It was
well past 10 P.M., with a misty haze descending over the stadium,
when the mixed doubles set went to a deciding tiebreak. It was a
must-win situation for Haygarth and Navratilova, who jumped out to an
early 3-0 advantage. The endlessly spunky Horn and unintimidated
Blake took the next two points. Horn failed to dig out a Haygarth
volley to fall behind 2-4. However, when the next point turned into a
one-on-one volleying war between Brent and Liezel, it was the woman
who prevailed. As a Haygarth reflex volley found the net, Horn
jumped and shouted, "Yes!". Navratilova pushed a defensive return
long to even the tiebreak at 4. In a situation unique to World
Team Tennis, it was all riding on the next point. If Horn could
win it on her serve, the match belonged to the FoxForce. If the
Electrics could score a mini-break, they'd tie the overall score and
force a super-tiebreaker. Is the suspense killing you or what?
Haygarth advised Navratilova to try a cross-court return and she
obliged, ripping Horn's second serve for an outright winner.
Schenectady County takes the set and the tiebreak by identical 5-4
scores. OVERALL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 20, HARTFORD 20
In a situation Navratilova had only encountered twice before in her
long assocation with World Team Tennis, the match would be decided in
a first-to-seven-points "supertiebreaker". Here is how it unfolded,
after the Electrics won the toss and elected to serve...
- Haygarth serving: Horn pushes a backhand volley wide -- 1-0
- Haygarth serving: Winning backhand volley from Haygarth -- 2-0
- Blake serving: Blistering Haygarth forehand handcuffs Horn -- 3-0
- Blake serving: Backhand drop volley winner from Horn -- 3-1
- Navratilova serving: Blake nets a backhand return -- 4-1
- Navratilova serving: Horn rips a sharply angled forehand return -- 4-2
- Horn serving: Winning backhand pass from Navratilova -- 5-2
- Horn serving: Backhand half-volley from Horn sails wide -- 6-2
- Haygarth serving: Haygarth buries an overhead smash in the net -- 6-3
- Haygarth serving: Haygarth clobbers a winning overhead smash -- 7-3
OVERALL FINAL SCORE: SCHENECTADY 21, HARTFORD 20
The FoxForce's undefeated record (a 5-0 mark run up with Monica
Seles on the roster) was snapped in dramatic fashion. "Get the
beers," Brent Haygarth told doubles partner Mike Hill as they
prepared to leave. Perhaps he needed a few cold ones to forget some
of the volleys and overheads he'd bricked at key stages, but a win's a
win and playing alongside Martina Navratilova made it particularly
special for Haygarth. "It was as good as I would have thought. She's
good. The bottom line is she's just really good. And I think she
thrives under that kind of situation. She loves it. I think that's
why she's still playing, one of the main reasons, is for that
adrenaline rush."
Navratilova concurred. "I love it," she said of the close finish.
"I was just glad that we got into (the supertiebreak). We had
chances; they had chances and a match point. Liezel did unbelievable
coming back in the singles... It was just so back and forth and the
home team wins, so everyone's happy." I asked Martina if she
had ever seen Bethanie Mattek play before tonight (she hadn't) and
what her impressions of the youngster were. "She's got good legs and
seems to have a good head on shoulders. Needs to work on her second
serve. She's a little wild, but I think she's got a good attitude.
We'll see, I mean, I only saw her play four games in the singles.
Doubles is not her strength, but she hit some decent volleys. She
seems to be a decent all-around player." Even though she's older
than Mattek by more than 28 years, Navratilova is still a pretty decent all-around
player in her own right.
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The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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