New York Buzz vs. St. Louis Aces
by Christopher Gerby
A disappointing crowd of approximately 800 had turned out for the
New York Buzz's season opener on Monday night, but the stands were
nearly packed to capacity as rocket-serving phenom Andy Roddick led
the St. Louis Aces into Schenectady. Despite getting shelled 24-8 in
their previous match (before Roddick joined them), the Aces were in a
bubbly mood right away. Waiting around for action to begin, Olga
Barabanschikova and Andrew Florent danced to the tunes playing over
the PA system. A longtime fan of "house music," Barabanschikova
seemed to particularly enjoy the techno beat of "Days Go By" by Dirty
Vegas. Roddick joined in with some head bobs during the
Kenny Loggins chestnut "Footloose" and, somewhat disturbingly, knew
the words to Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The fun continued during
the player introductions, with Barabanschikova pretending she'd been
goosed by Florent on her way off the St. Louis bench.
First set: mixed doubles -- Bhupathi/De Villiers vs. Roddick/Parkinson-Hasler
Quirky teammates and squealing female fans met with Roddick's approval,
but the evening's opening set saw him begin a running feud with the
chair umpire. In the first game, the ump incorrectly called a
let and had to correct himself, negating a great return Roddick had
alertly made. "That's the first time I did that in a year and you
blew it," Andy bellowed before pretending to tackle the umpire. "That
was your mulligan, eh? Call was so bad you made a kid cry." The
19-year-old quickly became somewhat annoyed by his own tennis as well,
muttering "great doubles expertise there" after one poorly played
point. His serves were drawing oohs and ahhs from the crowd, however,
and a string of easy holds brought the set to a tiebreak.
Fully recovered from Monday's jet lag, Mahesh Bhupathi took over in the
'breaker. He unleashed a service winner, ace, and beautiful fall-away
forehand winner to secure a quick 3-0 lead. Nannie de Villiers netted a
backhand to make it 3-1, but recently married Holly Parkinson-Hasler
followed with an error of her own for 4-1. Facing set point, Roddick
drilled a backhand at the feet of De Villiers, whose attempt at a
half-volley sailed long. The South African got immediate revenge on
the next point, ripping a ball right at Roddick, who could
only block it back into the net in self-defense. The 5-2 tiebreak
win left De Villiers feeling good about her ability to handle
Roddick's vaunted pace. "I think I expected more of his serve, which
is quite weird. I mean, he's got a really good serve, but I think I've
played enough against the guys not to be too scared of his serve,
although I don't think I'd wanna be very close to it."
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 5, ST. LOUIS 4
Second set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Andy Roddick
Coming off tough Grand Slam losses to Wayne Arthurs and Greg Rusedski,
Roddick had a chance to prove himself against an admittedly less
imposing lefty, Justin Bower. While acknowleding that Roddick has
"a bomb for a serve" and can "bring Satan's wrath with that forehand,"
Bower was determined to stand his ground. Roddick didn't make it easy
for him in the set's opening game, starting off with a powerful ace
and a service winner. Disappointed with the crowd's tepid response,
Roddick turned to a section of spectators behind him and said "It's a
little quiet over here." He then served a fault and drew some
exaggerated cheers from those fans.
Roddick held for 1-0, but Bower opened the next game with a service
winner of his own, drawing a cry of "a little Bower power" from one
fan. Andy found that very amusing and needed a moment to collect
himself. Bower remained dead serious and stayed even with the
Nebraska native at 2 games apiece. He got a bit of help along the
way from a very dodgy line call that had Roddick genuinely livid.
"These are the home fans and they're booing," he pointed out to the
umpire, to no avail. Forehand winners gave Bower a 0-30 lead in Game
5 and inspired hope that he really could play David to the 13th-ranked
Goliath. However, a laser forehand down the line on game point
saved Roddick, who edged ahead 3-2.
Trailing 30-40 in Game 6, Bower fought off one break point with a
second serve that appeared to skid off the line, overwhelming Roddick.
Bower followed with an ace and pumped his fist, level again at 3-3.
Disputing another call in the next game, Roddick held for 4-3, then took
advantage of a couple wild Bower errors to lead 15-40 in Game 8.
Bower put away a tricky smash (letting it bounce once first) to stave
off the first set point, but steered a forehand just wide on the
second. A commendable effort from the streaky South African had
fallen just short, by a count of 5 games to 3.
OVERALL SCORE: ST. LOUIS 9, NEW YORK 8
Third set: men's doubles -- Bhupathi/Bower vs. Florent/Roddick
If he was down about his near-miss in singles, Bower didn't show it in
the opening game of men's doubles. He served a pair of aces and held
at 15. Roddick matched that with an easy hold of his own, stopping
after one point to make a goofy face in teammate Olga Barabanschikova's
direction. "I just wanted to see you smile," he explained with a
cocky grin. Bhupathi was all business in a love hold for 2-1, but
Andy and Olga were at it again in Game 4. After a desperate Bhupathi
lob landed on the net cord and fell back to New York's side, Roddick
kissed his fingers, touched the tape, and told Barabanschikova "that
woulda sucked." Following love holds by Florent and Bower, the
Buzz held a 3-2 lead.
Justin Bower showed off some impressive athletic ability in Game 6,
jumping over a crouching ballboy after fruitlessly chasing a Florent
drop volley. He and Bhupathi were also returning serve well enough
to reach a 40-all game point against Roddick. A thrilling rally
ensued, with the Buzz players hitting mid-court groundstrokes as
Roddick and Florent covered the net. A sizzling Bower backhand was
finally too much for A-Rod, who missed a volley to surrender the
break for 4-2.
Bhupathi kept the New York momentum rolling, earning a
40-0 lead with back-to-back aces. St. Louis narrowed the gap to 40-30,
but the third set point ended with Bower driving home an overhead
smash. The 5-2 loss was a crushing blow for the Aces going into
halftime, but Barabanschikova gave Andrew Florent a consolation kiss
on the cheek anyway. "Only Florent gets kissed, that's nice,"
Roddick observed with mock jealousy. Afterwards, Andy was rather
sheepish about his failure to win either the first or third set.
"I don't play much doubles, as I showed tonight, but it's fun to get
out there."
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 13, ST. LOUIS 11
Fourth set: women's singles -- Liezel Huber vs. Olga Barabanschikova
Reduced to cheerleaders and warmup partners in the first three sets
of the night, Huber and Barabanschikova finally saw on-court action
in Set 4. Barabanschikova's first try at Team Tennis singles was a
debacle on Monday, when Elena Likhovtseva of Sacramento drubbed her
5-0. Early on it was easy to see how that happened. Olga was missing first
serves by wide margins and following them with dreadful powderpuff
second serves. Huber wasn't doing much to take advantage, though,
and Barabanschikova wound up winning the opening game with a nice
forehand winner down the line. As her male teammates hooted and
hollared, "Olga B" (as she's billed on the back of her Aces jersey)
stuck out her tongue and smiled bashfully.
They went with serve to 2-2, when Barabanschikova finally put in a
respectable second serve. "That was huge," Roddick embellished, drawing
another smile from Barabanschikova. Another down-the-line forehand
(her best weapon on this night) ultimately gave the Belarussian a
3-2 lead. Enthusiastic as ever, Roddick screamed out what I think was "give me your number!"
Barabanschikova responded with...um...a suggestive gesture involving
her tongue. A-Rod buried his head in his hands, laughing hysterically and seeming
genuinely embarrassed.
Visibly displeased about squandering several chances to break her
opponent's serve, Lizel Huber launched an ace to close out a hold for
3-3. The next two games were tests of wills, featuring long, evenly matched
rallies. Each went to a game point, but the servers survived, forcing
a tiebreak at 4 games all. Huber must have figured out by now that
Barabanschikova's backhand was attackable. Three errors off that
wing helped put Olga B into a seemingly insurmountable 1-4 deficit.
However, she stayed alive with a service winner for 2-4. Barabanschikova
found the baseline with a shot in the next rally, forcing an errant
Huber reply for 3-4. The South African then completely imploded,
coughing up two double faults in a row to lose the tiebreak and set
by an identical 5-4 score. It wasn't pretty, but "the Belarussian Bombshell"
strutted to the sideline with a win under her belt.
After the match, I grabbed Barabanschikova for a quick one-on-one
interview. Not surprisingly, the Team Tennis rookie has found the
lighthearted WTT atmosphere a perfect fit for personality. "I heard
it's a lot of fun, but it's even more fun than I expected. I'm really
enjoying it." Less fun have been her last couple seasons on the WTA
circuit, which have been marked by long absences and a failure to win
any main draw matches. While a foot injury was partially to blame, "I
also took some time not because of the injury. I just needed time
off and I think it really helped me, because now I'm enjoying it a lot
more." Her ranking in desperate need of a boost, Barabanschikova will
follow the Team Tennis season by playing some "challengers, just to
get some matches, get some confidence."
OVERALL SCORE: NEW YORK 17, ST. LOUIS 16
Fifth set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Huber vs. Barabanschikova/Parkinson-Hasler
After weathering the Andy Roddick storm earlier in the evening, all
the Buzz had to do was beat a pair of less-than-accomplished women's
doubles players to record their first victory of the WTT season.
After getting smoked 5-0 on Monday night, Olga and Holly needed all
the motivation they could get from their boisterous teammates. They got no
help early on from the chair umpire, who interrupted the very first
rally of the set by calling "touch" after a Barabanschikova reflex volley.
"Touch what? It didn't touch me! It touched the racket," Olga
exclaimed. Helped by that bizarre ruling, De Villiers held at love.
Nannie was a key player in the second game as well. At 40-all, she
nearly decapitated Barabanschikova with a sharply struck backhand
volley. De Villiers raised her hand in apology, but must have been
glad to grab a 2-0 lead.
Game 3 played out much the same way, with De Villiers successfully
hitting a ball right at Parkinson-Hasler on game point. Holly and
Nannie exchanged service holds as New York took a 4-1 lead in the
set and a commanding 21-17 edge in the overall score. The wind had
gone out of the St. Louis sails, but Barabanschikova extended the
match, holding at 30. Another bad double fault found Huber trailing
15-30 on her serve, but it was the last point the Aces would win.
At 40-30, Huber caught the baseline with a forehand volley, wrapping
up a satisfying victory for the home team.
FINAL SCORE: NEW YORK 22, ST. LOUIS 18
If the night's unofficial MVP wasn't Mahesh Bhupathi, it was surely
Nannie de Viliers, who played a key role in mixed and women's doubles.
"We just wanted to finish
it off," she said of the 5-2 win with Huber. "We knew we were leading
by one going into the last set, so all we had to do really was win,
but we wanna do better. We wanna make sure of it. We didn't want it
to come down to a tiebreaker in the end." Back at the .500 mark
following this victory, the Buzz now hit the road for a rematch
with Hartford. They'll return to Schenectady on July 13th for the
first of two meetings with Paul Goldstein, Maria Sharapova, and the
rest of the Delaware Smash.
Of course, the big story was still Andy Roddick, who'd won over the
fans with his smart-aleck comments and willingness to sign countless
autographs. "It's a little more relaxed and you can kinda get into it with the crowd a little
bit, interact, so it's a lot of fun for me out there," he said of the
Team Tennis experience. "I'd like to see regular tennis a little more
enthusiastic, more fun like this. It's a good time, great atmosphere."
Despite the cocky swagger he displayed on the court, Roddick tried to
downplay his phenom hype. "I like to think I'm part of the next
generation of American tennis players. No one person can do it on
their own." Fitting words on a night when the doubles sets made
the difference.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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