New York Buzz vs. Philadelphia Freedoms
by Christopher Gerby
The Philadelphia Freedoms came to Schenectady with a piping hot record
of 8 wins and 2 losses, putting them safely atop the Eastern Conference
standings. Not exactly the time to make a roster change, but as scheduled,
journeyman David DiLucia gave way to living legend Jimmy Connors. It
does say something about Philadelphia's team chemistry that DiLucia
made the trip and suited up anyway. And with three reigning Wimbledon
doubles champions (Lisa Raymond, Rennae Stubbs, and Don Johnson) still
in the lineup, the Freedoms had a good chance whether
or not Connors could recapture the magic of his glory days. The Buzz
wouldn't likely go down without a fight, though, as they needed a win
in this home finale to keep their fading playoff hopes alive.
It was an extremely hot, muggy evening in upstate New York with a
"slight chance of showers" in the forecast. About 20 minutes before
play was scheduled to begin, Connors emerged from the players' trailer.
As he stopped to sign autographs and pose for pictures, a light rain
began falling...and quickly turned into a full-fledged storm. Fans
went scurrying, the players all headed back to their trailer, and a
lengthy rain delay followed. Jill Craybas of the Buzz emerged briefly to get better
reception on her cell phone. Rennae Stubbs popped out to sign a few
autographs for fans who were anxiously awaiting another glimpse of
Connors. Finally, right around 8 PM, Jimmy and his teammates headed
back out to the court. However, the match was further delayed by long
team introductions, an ovation for league co-founder Billie Jean
King (making her only Schenectady visit of the season), and a special
ceremony in which Schnenectady County officially named July 24th, 2001
"Jimmy Connors Day". Connors looked genuinely uncomfortable with all
the hoopla and eager to get his first World Team Tennis match of the
millennium underway.
First set -- women's doubles: Craybas/De Villiers vs. Raymond/Stubbs
The WTA's top doubles tandem actually lost to little-known Jill Craybas
and Nannie de Villiers when these teams met a week ago in Philadelphia.
Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs were out for revenge and got off on the
right foot by breaking Nannie's serve. Raymond's service game went to
40-40, when a De Villiers backhand hit the tape and fell back onto
New York's side, putting them down 0-2. De Villiers was all sorts of
angry and even shouted "idiot!" at herself after missing an overhead
in Game 3, but Craybas fought off a break point to get their team on the
board at 1-2. Stubbs and De Villiers then exchanged holds for 3-2.
Midway through Game 6, Raymond hit a smash right at De Villiers, who
could only stick a racquet up to protect herself. The ball deflected
off and line drived its way directly over to the Philadelphia bench,
hitting David DiLucia, who was seated right next to Jimmy Connors.
De Villiers gave Craybas a high five, pretending she'd done it on
purpose. Connors got into the act by switching seats and cowering
behind Don Johnson. Once the levity passed, Raymond closed out a
comfortable hold for 4-2. A very sloppy Jill Craybas service game
followed, with Lisa Raymond knocking home a forehand volley winner
for the break and the set. Rennae Stubbs wasn't thrilled with some
of the returns she missed, but it was a mostly impressive performance
by the Philadelphia women.
OVERALL SCORE: PHILADELPHIA 5, NEW YORK 2
Second set -- women's singles: Justin Bower vs. Jimmy Connors
"Let's go Justin, you own this guy!" cried out a jokester in the stands
as 23-year-old Justin Bower settled in for his first meeting with
48-year-old Jimmy Connors (who won four of his eight Grand Slam singles
titles before Bower was even born). Connors still looks more or less
like the man who made a career-defining run to the US Open semifinals
ten years ago. The rocking motion on his serve, the lunging returns,
the way he throws his body into a volley -- all the trademarks on
display for an appreciative audience. He was surprisingly sharp
off the ground in the set's opening game, holding at 15 even though he
missed all but one of his first serves. However, Bower then made a statement of
his own, holding by the same score to even things at 1 all. With
DJ/announcer Dr. Sound playing a clip from the children's song "Jimmy
Crack Corn", Connors fought off a pair of break points in Game 3.
Alas, Jimbo sent a forehand just long on game point, allowing the young
South African to snare a 2-1 lead.
Bower's big serving keyed an easy hold for 3-1. Connors climbed out of
another 15-40 hole in Game 5, but again came up short on game point --
Bower ripped a cross-court forehand past him to break for 4-1. Bower
continued to overpower Connors, opening Game 6 with an ace. Two
points later there was a downright sad moment as Jimmy tried to set up
for a shot but couldn't quite move his feet in time and got hit by the
ball. He did push Bower to 30-30, but Justin finished him off with a
service winner and a blistering ace out wide. All Connors could do was
shrug as he returned to his seat after being trounced 5-1. The lopsided
score was slightly misleading, but important for the Buzz, who now had
the overall lead.
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 7, PHILADELPHIA 6
Third set -- mixed doubles: Bhupathi/De Villiers vs. Johnson/Stubbs
Don Johnson was the star of this set's opening game, a break of Mahesh
Bhupathi. Then he held at love to give his team an early 2-0 cushion.
An emphatic poach from the Indian finally got the Buzz going, as
Bhupathi blasted away a backhand volley for 40-15. A return from
Johnson on the next point apparently hit the sideline, but after a long
pause, chair umpire Laura Mountford muttered "the ball was out" and
awarded the game to New York. An absolutely livid Rennae Stubbs said
"you've got to be kidding" as she argued the call. Johnson seemed
most offended by the lateness of that nonchalant overrule. "What were
you waiting for?" he demanded. Philadelphia lost the argument, but
continued taking care of its service games on the way to a 4-3 lead.
With a chance to serve it out, "Stubbsy" suddenly got a case of the
yips, double faulting twice. At 15-40, Johnson hit what would have been
a winning smash, but De Villiers ran it down and tossed up a defensive
lob. Stubbs then uncharacteristically shanked an overhead to lose the
game and bring up the evening's first tiebreak.
- Bhupathi double fault -- 1-0 PHILADELPHIA
- Bhupathi service winner -- 1-1
- Johnson service winner -- 2-1 PHILADELPHIA
- Stubbs puts away an overhead this time -- 3-1 PHILADELPHIA
- De Villiers smash is called wide on another overrule -- 4-1 PHILADELPHIA
- De Villiers service winner -- 4-2 PHILADELPHIA
- De Villiers rifles a passing shot which Johnson can't handle -- 4-3 PHILADELPHIA
- Bhupathi drills a backhand winner down the middle -- 4-4
- Johnson crashes into the net after killing a backhand volley -- 5-4 PHILADELPHIA...?
Johnson very clearly touched the net, so it was merely a question of
whether he did so while the ball (which went careening into the
stands on a single bounce) was still in play. It looked to me like he hit
the net too soon, but it was a very close judgment call which could have gone
either way. Umpire Mountford looked completely unsure, but awarded
the point (and therefore the set) to Philadelphia. She was immediately
surrounded by the entire Buzz team, who strenuously tried to explain
the rule to her. Mountford finally gave in and reversed her call,
giving the set to New York. This of course drove the Freedoms into a
state of angry shock. Lisa Raymond was the most upset of all,
repeatedly sticking her finger in the umpire's face as she argued her
team's case. World Team Tennis commissioner Ilana Kloss (who happened to be
attending the match with Billie Jean King) came down out of the stands
to intervene and had a long chat with both Raymond and Nannie de
Villiers. (Ironically, infamous hothead Connors was the one player
who stayed out of this entire sorry mess.) Kloss finally convinced
the umpire to reverse the call yet again, restoring Philadelphia's
5-4 win of the tiebreak. "Right or wrong, if she announces the score,
you have to stick with it and go on," Kloss explained. "She may have
made a mistake, but you have to live with it."
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 11, PHILADELPHIA 11
Fourth set -- women's singles: Jill Craybas vs. Lisa Raymond
The fourth set got underway just after 10 PM, with a foggy haze and
dive bomber moths filling the air. The first three games featured
the worst tennis I've seen all year. Despite their solid
singles rankings, former NCAA champions Jill Craybas and Lisa Raymond couldn't keep the
ball in play. They both looked utterly dismayed and even started
hitting moonballs to each other just to get some kind of rhythm. Craybas
mis-hit one overhead so badly that it sailed into the announcer's
booth, where Dr. Sound caught it on the fly. Craybas got broken for 0-1,
but Raymond was just as hopeless in a break for 1-1. Tensions were
still running high, so David DiLucia didn't appreciate Dr. Sound
playing his "Final Jeopardy" music clip whenever Raymond took some
time before her serve. "How old is that Jeopardy? How old is that?!?"
he screamed, sounding seriously agitated. (For a guy who wasn't
even playing, DiLucia sure was making his presence felt.) Raymond
held for 2-1 and Craybas matched her to 2-2, finally stepping into
some winners in Game 4.
A double fault from Raymond opened the door a bit in Game 5, but
Craybas netted a return to trail 2-3. Jill then coughed up a double
fault and a pair of unforced errors to give Raymond a 15-40 look.
Lisa blew both break points and engaged Craybas in another moonball
rally on game point. Craybas finally netted a backhand to lose serve
and get behind the eight ball at 2-4. Then Raymond played a poor
service game, getting broken to 3-4. Suddenly the only shot working
for either player was Jill's backhand down the line, which she went
to repeatedly in holding for 4-4. New York and Philadelphia headed
into another tiebreak...which was as ugly as most of this set. The
first six points were comprised of three Raymond errors (all from her backhand slice) and three
Craybas errors. Lisa netted a forehand to give Jill a set point at
4-3. Raymond then surrendered one last gift, finding the net with
another sliced backhand. It wasn't a set to put in the time capsule,
but the 5-3 tiebreak win was big for the Buzz, who regained the
overall lead.
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 16, PHILADELPHIA 15
Fifth set -- men's doubles: Bhupathi/Bower vs. Connors/Johnson
Fans were allowed to keep balls hit into the stands tonight, so only
two points into the fifth set, a new one had to be taken out of a can.
With big serving Mahesh Bhupathi about to unleash this fresh sphere
at him, Jimmy Connors asked "new ball?" and shuffled far behind the
baseline. He got back into his traditional return stance, but New
York won the game a few points later when a Justin Bower backhand whizzed past
the ear of a crouching Connors. Don Johnson pretended to check his watch
during the second game (it was about 10:45 now), which he eventually
held for 1-1. Playing together for the first time, Connors and Johnson
nearly collided during a point in Game 3, where Bower held at love.
Don hit the heck out of an overhead smash in Game 4 and the ball
wound up in Dr. Sound's booth. "That felt gooood," Johnson said in his
North Carolina drawl (think Jeff Varner from "Survivor 2"). Connors
whacked a service winner at 40-15 to hold for 2-2.
Easy holds from Bhupathi and Johnson brought the evenly matched set to 3-3.
Early in Game 7, Johnson yelled "out! out! out!" to warn his partner
off a ball that was going long. "I'm too damn old to go for it
anyway," Connors quipped, getting a big laugh from the near-capacity
crowd. Justin Bower's lefty serve continued to work wonders -- an
ace closed out his hold for 4-3. Now the pressure was on Connors to
hold serve and force yet another tiebreak. He was on the brink of
disaster at 40-all, but put in a good first serve which set up Johnson
for an easy smash. So we were headed into a tiebreak after all. A win for
Philly would force a "supertiebreaker". A win for New York would end
the match in their favor.
- Connors tosses his racquet into the sky after a Bhupathi smash sails over his head -- 1-0 NEW YORK
- Bhupathi yells "get up!" to Bower, who hits a powerful overhead of his own -- 2-0 NEW YORK
- Bower forehand finds the tape -- 2-1 NEW YORK
- Johnson unleashes a service winner -- 2-2
- Bower nets a low backhand volley -- 3-2 PHILADELPHIA
- Bhupathi hits an unreturnable volley at Connors -- 3-3
- Johnson makes a superb reflex volley; Bhupathi buries a forehand in the net -- 4-3 PHILADELPHIA
- Bhupathi's return of a Connors serve goes wide -- 5-3 PHILADELPHIA
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 20, PHILADELPHIA 20
How else could the last home match of the New York Buzz's 2001 season
end but in a supertiebreaker? The format: the same players
remain on the court and the first team to win 7 points wins the match.
With playoff implications hanging in the balance, you could have cut
the humid air with a knife. The Buzz got a key 2-0 lead when Connors
and Johnson made one errant volley apiece. Bower continued his knack
for clutch deliveries, notching two service winners to 4-0. Bhupathi
went airborne to drive home a forehand volley winner for 5-0. The
home team was on an absolute rampage. Johnson finally got his team
on the board, hitting an eye-popping behind-the-back volley winner
for 1-5. ("Where's the jumbotron? I wanna see an instant replay of
that," exclaimed one impressed fan.) After the teams switched sides,
Bhupathi uncorked a big first serve which Connors could only block
back into the net. With a whole fistful of match points at 6-1,
Bhupathi blasted another service winner. It actually looked long,
but the Freedoms were too exhausted (and too far behind) to bother
arguing. At 11:10 PM, Mahesh Bhupathi celebrated his team's 7-1 domination of the
supertiebreaker by hitting a ball (the one he would have needed for a
second serve) sky-high over the scoreboard.
FINAL SCORE: NEW YORK 21, PHILADELPHIA 20
"I'm still standin'," Jimmy Connors cheerfully said a few minutes after
enduring the narrow defeat. "I enjoyed it. I had a good time. I
don't wanna do it full time anymore, but to come out and play like this,
we've got a great team. The girls and the guys -- that's definitely
what's it all about, to get into a team event and try to pull through."
He blamed his lopsided singles loss on the Team Tennis scoring format.
"For me, I prefer the long, drawn-out games: deuce, ad, deuce, ad. It
goes awful quick and things can happen. I lose two (40-all) games
and that's tough to handle." Asked what he's been up to during his
break from competitive tennis, Connors simply replied, "livin' life,
babe, livin' life." Jimmy says he would consider playing in the WTT championship
match next month, but his 8-3 Freedoms have to win the Eastern Conference
title first. They control their own destiny, but the 7-5 Buzz are now nipping at
their heels. Even with Jill Craybas mired in a funk, the team has
rounded into good enough form that wins over Springfield and
Kansas City are not out of the question. On The Line hereby says
farewell to the 2001 Buzz and wishes them luck on that season-ending
road trip.
|
|
The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine.
https://tennis-ontheline.com/01wtt07.htm © 2025
Last updated 26 September 2015
// -->
|