New York Buzz vs. New York Sportimes
by Christopher Gerby
The New York Buzz bring a new look into the 2003 season of World
Team Tennis. The defending Eastern Conference champions are without
doubles stalwarts Mahesh Bhupathi and Liezel Huber. Eric Kutner has
also departed after taking Coach of the Year honors last season. In
their stead are Don Johnson (former # 1 doubles player in the world),
Shenay Perry (a promising 19-year-old), and Jolene Watanabe (the
first female head coach in Team Tennis history). South
Africans Justin Bower and Nannie de Villiers -- in their third and
fourth year, respectively, as members of the Buzz -- round out the
roster. Also due to come on board is the legendary Boris Becker, who
starts an abbreviated stint with the team on Wednesday.
First things first: a season opening tilt with the cross-state rival
New York Sportimes. Formerly known as the Hamptons, the team keeps
player/co-owner Patrick McEnroe occupied when he isn't coaching the
U.S. Davis Cup squad or doing color commentary on TV. As a matter of
fact, he had just arrived from Wimbledon, where his duties left little
time to prepare for on-court action. The tall order facing his Sportimes
looked even more daunting when one considered his teammates: semi-retired
Ellis Ferreira, relatively untested Bea Bielik, and a very inexperienced
17-year-old from China named Shuai Peng. At least this ragtag bunch
has a colorful coach -- Joe "Joey G" Guiliano, whose accomplishments
include guiding Mirjana Lucic to the 1998 Wimbledon semifinals.
Rain in the area pushed the scheduled 7:00 start time back to 7:15.
Another shower began shortly after the player introductions, further
delaying matters until 7:45. "Just like Wimbledon," McEnroe remarked
to the fans with a smile. While inconvenient, the rain did little to dampen
team spirit on the Sportimes bench. McEnroe/Peng and Bielik/Ferreira shared
positive little fist bumps as their men's doubles team prepared to
take the court. P-Mac then jokingly asked "Coach, what should we do?"
and got the following bit of Yoda-like wisdom from Guiliano: "Hit
the ball over the net."
First set: men's doubles: Bower/Johnson vs. E Ferreira/P McEnroe
For the rusty McEnroe and Ferreira, hitting the ball over the net
might prove easier said than done. Making matters worse for the
visiting team was some early heckling from the Schenectady crowd,
which is never shy about getting involved. "You can't be serious,"
one fan intoned, paraphrasing John McEnroe's signature line. Sympathetic to
his opponent's plight, Don Johnson asked, "Ever heard that one before?"
McEnroe sarcastically grumbled about the "very original crowd," then
promptly ripped a winning return to earn his team's first point.
Johnson held serve comfortably, though, and Justin Bower followed suit
for an early 2-1 lead.
Ferreira and McEnroe each have Grand Slam doubles titles to their
credit, but they looked every bit of their combined 70 years in Game
4. Reflexing a backhand volley long on break point, McEnroe
surrendered serve and handed the Buzz a 3-1 edge. The unusual
lefty/lefty combination of Bower and Johnson closed matters out from
there. Clicking very nicely indeed in their debut outing, they
rolled to a 5-2 win without facing a break point.
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 5, SPORTIMES 2
Second set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Patrick McEnroe
Fresh off reaching the finals of a satellite event in Pittsburgh,
Justin Bower figured to be in better form than a jet-lagged Patrick
McEnroe. Right on cue, he broke his elder's serve, winning a very
nice side-to-side rally on game point. However, Bower followed with a
sloppy service game of his own for 1-all. Both players were visibly
frustrated, with Patrick eerily mirroring the intense perfectionism of
his brother. He screamed "hit it!" after a weak backhand error and
"yes!" after a cross-court winner, eagerly spurring himself on. A
fortunate bounce off a net cord allowed McEnroe to scratch out a
hold for 2-1 and he expressed his gratitude by literally kissing the
tape.
Bower rained down impressive left-handed serves for the duration of
the set, but McEnroe found a groove of his own, dropping only one
more service point en route to a tiebreak at 4 games all. The
opening point featured the best rally of the evening, an all-court
scramble fest which ended when Bower drove a backhand pass into the
net. It was a sign of things to come. A missed forehand return,
double fault, and sliced backhand error put Bower behind the 8 ball
at 1-4. Several set points in hand, McEnroe failed to dig out an
awkward volley, pushing it into the net for 4-2. Bower had new life...but not for long. Justin bricked a backhand to end the 5-2 tiebreak
loss. McEnroe triumphantly pumped
his fist and got a congratulatory hug from Coach Guiliano, who quietly
made a little choking gesture to indicate what he made of Bower's
less-than-stellar performance in the tiebreak.
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 9, SPORTIMES 7
Third set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Perry vs. Bielik/Peng
From a sociopolitical standpoint, the pair playing women's doubles for
the Buzz this season form a nice little story: a South African (Nannie
de Villiers) partnered with an African-American (Shenay Perry). This
doesn't break new ground -- Amanda Coetzer and Lori McNeil played
together for years -- but it would have raised eyebrows in the days of
apartheid. Meanwhile, a pair of Team Tennis rookies looked to make a
splash for the Sportimes. Shuai Peng seemed particularly excited,
grinning from ear-to-ear as she got last minute instructions from her
teammates and coach.
On serve at 1-2, the Sportimes' youngsters showed their inexperience,
standing frozen together at the net as a Perry pass floated by for
a clean winner. "If you're not sure, hit it," Guiliano told them.
Peng warmed to the task, holding for 2-2 with a nice service winner.
In Game 5, it was Perry's turn to look green. She has pretty good
form at the net, but her timing was all off. A day after her 19th
birthday, she committed three volley errors in dropping serve to 2-3.
(Perry later attributed her iffy doubles showing to "a little bit of
nerves.") Taking the lead brought out the best in Bielik and Peng, who played
very good doubles the rest of the way. Bea's "death to all flying
things" overhead was particularly impressive in a 5-3 victory which
tied the cumulative match tally.
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 12, SPORTIMES 12
Fourth set: women's singles: Shenay Perry vs. Bea Bielik
They may not be household names at this point, but Shenay Perry and
Bea Bielik just might represent the future of American tennis. Bielik's
big, aggressive game carried her to the third round of last year's
U.S. Open and Perry recently cracked the top 200 by winning a challenger
event in Minnesota. Bielik looked poised to draw first blood, opening
up a 0-30 lead on Perry's serve in Game 4. A couple missed returns
cost her, though, and Shenay rifled a nice cross-court forehand winner
to hold for 2-2.
Perry absolutely spanked a forehand winner to earn break points in
Game 5. Bielik saved the first by swinging a powerful ace out wide,
but she then coughed up a double fault to lose serve. Bielik
grimaced and bounced her racket, now trailing 2-3. The Long Island
resident continued to struggle, making one forehand error after
another as Perry held for 4-2. Bielik held easily for 3-4, but it
was too little too late. I don't love Perry's rubber-armed, back-scratching
service motion, but she flashed some nice all-court ability in this
set, knocking off a high forehand volley to clinch it 5-3.
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 17, SPORTIMES 15
Fifth set: mixed doubles: De Villiers/Johnson vs. Bielik/Ferreira
Mixed doubles was a cornerstone of the Buzz efforts last season, but
would Don Johnson (the South Carolina native, not the "Miami Vice"
star) find the kind of success with Nannie de Villiers that she had with ex-partner
Mahesh Bhupathi? If the opening game of this set was a harbinger,
Coach Watanabe may have cause for concern. In all fairness, though,
Ellis Ferreira was the one to blame for Johnson dropping serve.
The most undersated member of the Sportimes let his racket do the
talking, as he ripped four winners (the most one player can rack up
in a single game of World Team Tennis).
Battling back after a dodgy set of singles, Bea Bielik helped
Ferreira extend the lead to 4-2. Unable to get that one early service
break back, De Villiers grew increasingly upset. She threw her
racket after lofting an unsuccessful lob and argued with the umpire
over a questionable line call. Nannie did hold for 3-4, though,
forcing Bielik to serve out the set. The 2002 NCAA champion saw a
40-0 lead shrink to 40-30, but escaped when Johnson blocked a return
wide. The lone break Ferreira had played so well to earn was the key
to a 5-3 mixed doubles victory for the Sportimes.
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 20, SPORTIMES 20
Considerable confusion followed, as even four-year WTT veteran Nannie
de Villiers needed a refresher course on the league's Supertiebreaker
format. It's a continuation of the final event (mixed doubles in this
case), with the first team to 7 points prevailing. Jolene Watanabe
won the coin toss for her team and Don Johnson elected to serve first.
Here is how the match-deciding action proceeded, point by point...
- DJ serving: Bielik badly misses a forehand return -- 1-0 BUZZ
- DJ: Ferreira's backhand pass is well left by Johnson -- 2-0 BUZZ
- EF: Unreturnable Johnson smash earns the mini-break -- 3-0 BUZZ
- EF: De Villiers deftly knocks off a forehand volley -- 4-0 BUZZ
- NdV: Johnson's lunging reflex volley sails long -- 4-1 BUZZ
- NdV: Very smooth backhand return winner by Ferreira -- 4-2 BUZZ
- BB: Winning backhand volley by Ferreira -- 4-3 BUZZ
- BB: Bielik blasts a service winner -- 4-4
- DJ: Johnson throws his arms into the air after a double fault -- 5-4 SPORTIMES
- DJ: Incredibly, Johnson commits another double fault -- 6-4 SPORTIMES
- EF: Ferreira has a sitter forehand volley, but nets it -- 6-5 SPORTIMES
- EF: A forehand drive by De Villiers finds the net -- 7-5 SPORTIMES
FINAL SCORE: SPORTIMES 21, BUZZ 20
In rather improbable fashion, the New York Sportimes eked out a
nail-biting victory. Earning unofficial MVP honors was lefty Ellis
Ferreira, whose heroics in mixed doubles made the difference. On the
flipside, goat horns would obviously be bestowed upon Don Johnson.
His easygoing demeanor is sure to make him a big hit with his teammates
and the Schenectady fans, but back-to-back double faults in a supertiebreaker
don't make for a great first impression. "I let my team down," he
admitted after the match. "I thought we had it. Somebody just put the
brakes on, didn't they?" Johnson and the rest of the Buzz get their
shot at redemption on Wednesday, with Boris Becker leading them against
the Hartford FoxForce.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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