New York Buzz vs. Sacramento Capitals
by Christopher Gerby
The New York Yankees. The Los Angeles Lakers. The Sacramento
Capitals? The Caps might not come to mind as a great sports dynasty,
but a dedicated owner and relatively stable roster have helped
them win five of the last six World Team Tennis championships. Armed with
the # 2 doubles team in the world (Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor),
Sacramento has gotten off to a typically strong start, leading the
Western Conference with a 5-2 record. And that's without the services
of Andre Agassi, who's scheduled to join the team for its regular
season stretch drive.
The story on the other side of the net couldn't be more different.
A fruitless road trip left the New York Buzz at 1-6, tied with
Philadelphia for the worst mark in WTT. Things were desperate enough
to require a team meeting, called to address what 3-season Buzz veteran
Justin Bower regarded as a lack of enthusiasm. "We had a huge pep
talk with the team yesterday. We gotta come out with the fire that we
had last year. That's the one thing (former Buzz member Mahesh
Bhupathi) brought to the team. We came out, we were pumped up, we
were excited to be out there. The first couple matches (this season),
I felt like our heads were hanging a little bit."
The dance pop of Daniel Bedingfield's "Gotta Get Through This," which
played over the PA system before the match, might have summed up the
team's approach to this match, given the absence of doubles specialist
Don Johnson. Buzz coach Jolene Watanabe said Johnson injured his left wrist
in a July 14th loss to Philadelphia, but Bower confirmed that DJ had
been hampered all along. "All of us knew just how badly Don was
hurting. He was playing with a lot of pain... Over the last couple of
matches, he's been trying his absolute butt off to get it together for
us, but today he just said he's hurting too much and it's hurting the
rest of us." Johnson's status for the rest of the Team Tennis season
is uncertain. "We thought that he would be fine, but he tried to hit
today and he can't hold the racket," said Watanabe. "Don went home to
see a specialist and we'll know later on if we'll have him back."
First set: men's doubles -- Bower/Rudman vs. Knowles/Nestor
With ailing Don Johnson on the shelf, the Buzz would have to pair Justin
Bower with lifelong buddy Shaun Rudman, a fellow southpaw who hits
with two hands off both sides. Rudman no longer plays on a
regular basis, but at least he knows Bower well. "Shaun and I used to
play a lot of doubs together. He's also my coach and one of my best
friends, so we have some pretty good chemistry. And we have the
unknown factor -- nobody really knows what to expect from us." Everyone,
on the other hand, knows what to expect from Mark Knowles and Daniel
Nestor, who teamed up to win the 2002 Australian Open and 1998 US
Open.
Successful service games from Bower, Nestor, and Rudman meant Knowles
would have to hold serve to keep the set even. With a heavily taped
left leg, the 31-year-old struggled. Knowles double faulted twice
and couldn't dig a Rudman return off his shoelaces on game point. Just
like that, the underdogs were up 3-1. Two aces from Bower in
the next game earned a shout of "c'mon Boris" from one fan. Justin
shrugged off the comparison to ex-teammate Becker, joking "I don't
have the hair" before holding for a 4-1 lead.
Nestor's second love hold of the evening got the Capitals to 2-4 and
put the pressure on Rudman. He got to a 40-all game point, but
Knowles confidently punched a backhand volley between the South
Africans to break serve. However, as quickly as the momentum had shifted to
the visiting team, it shifted right back. Bower eluded Knowles with a
forehand pass to bring up another winner-take-all game point. Mark
choked, throwing in a double fault to end it. To the delight of
the half-capacity crowd, the Buzz had a 5-3 set in hand.
In the words of
Coach Watanabe, the upset win in men's doubles was nothing short of
"wonderful! Shaun came in and his returns tonight were just superb."
Bower chalked it up to previous experience. "It helps that we've
played together. We know what to do. We came out and played a bunch
of I-formations together at the beginning. I know how he serves, so
my timing getting up was pretty good."
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 5, CAPITALS 3
Second set: mixed doubles -- Bower/De Villiers vs. Knowles/Likhovtseva
The shock of losing a set in what should be his team's strongest event
was not about to faze Capitals coach Wayne Bryan. Father of the
reigning French Open champion Bryan twins, Wayne is a real character
in his own right, shouting words of encouragement in a voice that
reminds one of Bill Murray's character from Caddyshack. "Coming
back right here, let's go, coming back," he assured Mark Knowles and
Elena Likhovtseva as they took to the court for mixed doubles.
After dropping serve twice in men's doubles, Knowles did it again to
open the mixed. This stoked the fires of a quartet of young male
season ticket holders I referred to last week as "the back row
rowdies." They were in full voice tonight, shouting "Bower Power"
as Justin rocketed in a pair of aces en route to a 2-0 lead. Two games
later, it was a less catchy "Nannie Power" chant as Nannie de Villiers shrugged
off a double fault to hold for 3-1. With an 8-4 lead in the overall
tally, all was right in the land of the New York Buzz.
Leading 3-2, but trailing 15-30 on his serve, Bower called De Villiers
off an overhead, then hit the ball long. He immediately followed
that miscue with a break-surrendering double fault. The set was tied
up and Coach Bryan had reason to be excited. "Let's turn this
sucker around," he said, demanding high fives from Ally Baker
and Daniel Nestor. Likhovtseva held for 4-3, the first Capitals lead
of the night. De Villiers faced set point in Game 8, but rallied with
a swing volley winner and an unreturnable serve to force a tiebreak...
- MK serving: De Villiers nets a backhand and shouts at herself -- 1-0 CAPITALS
- MK: Deftly angled backhand volley winner by Likhovtseva -- 2-0 CAPITALS
- JB: Double fault by Bower -- 3-0 CAPITALS
- JB: Likhovtseva nets a lunging backhand pass -- 3-1 CAPITALS
- EL: Clutch service winner by Likhovtseva -- 4-1 CAPITALS
- EL: Another first serve sets up an easy Knowles smash -- 5-1 CAPITALS
Mixed doubles continues to be a sore point for the Buzz, but Bower
sees potential in his brand new pairing with De Villiers. "I'm not
saying we should have won, but we made a couple of combination errors
where I was in the wrong spot and that's just because we haven't
played together." Across the way, Knowles was still looking down
about his serving woes. Likhovtseva and Bryan each stopped to give
him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 9, CAPITALS 8
Third set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Perry vs. Baker/Likhovtseva
Having already made an impression on the sidelines with her big hoop
earrings and fetching smile, 17-year-old Ally Baker would now see her first on-court
action of the evening. Having umpire Candy Pantano twice announce her
name as "Ashley Baker" was not the introduction she would have been
looking for, though. ("It's Ally," she good-naturedly pointed out.)
Nannie de Villiers had bigger problems to worry about, like her
season-long inability to buy a first serve. A double fault in the
set's opening game prompted Nannie to bounce her racket for approximately
the 50th time this month. A volley error on break point upset her
even more -- De Villiers whacked a ball into the net as the Capitals
relished a tie in the overall score.
Very slow to take the court at the start of the set, Baker and Likhovtseva
got a time violation warning while conferencing in Game 2. "We were
waiting for you!" Baker exclaimed to Pantano before putting in some
good lefty serves for a 2-0 lead. Game 4 saw the back row rowdies
seriously test the patience of Elena Likhovtseva. She glared at the
raucous fans and even said something to them, only to be drowned out
by a "you serve like a girl" taunt. The Russian held for 3-1 and
looked happy to be changing ends.
After De Villiers held for 2-3, the Buzz had a couple golden opportunities
against Baker's serve. Likhovtseva saved one break point with a smash,
then fended off another by double hitting a volley. Also known as a
"carry," this rather blatant violation of the rules went unnoticed by
the umpire and led to a heated argument by the Buzz. With one last
chance to break Baker's serve, Shenay Perry knocked off a winning
volley, waved her arms, and got the biggest ovation of the night.
The set was dead even at 3 games apiece and the back row rowdies weren't
the only fans fired up. Two routine holds later, it was time for
another tiebreak...
- NdV serving: An awkward Perry volley sails long -- 1-0 CAPITALS
- NdV: Perry redeems herself with a volley winner -- 1-1
- AB: Baker puts in a first serve; Perry nets the return -- 2-1 CAPITALS
- AB: Deep service winner by Baker -- 3-1 CAPTIALS
- SP: Baker wildly mis-hits a return -- 3-2 CAPITALS
- SP: A four-player rally ends with De Villiers knifing a volley at Baker -- 3-3
- EL: Baker comes up with a winning forehand volley -- 4-3 CAPTIALS
- EL: Likhovtseva wraps it up with a service winner -- 5-3 CAPTIALS
It certainly was a spirited effort by De Villiers and Perry, but once
again the Buzz had come up short in a tiebreak. The lead they'd
earned in men's doubles was gone as the match headed to intermission.
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 13, CAPITALS 13
Fourth set: women's singles -- Shenay Perry vs. Ally Baker
The battle of American teenagers didn't last long. When Shenay Perry
jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Ally Baker, Capitals coach Wayne Bryan
got out the hook. He substituted the vastly more experienced Elena
Likhovtseva in for Baker, who took the news very well, crying out "Go
Elena!" before her teammate had played a single point. It looked like a
good move when Likhovtseva went up 40-15, but she then double faulted
and ended a pair of lengthy rallies with backhand errors. It was all
Perry, up a double break now at 3-0.
Shenay blasted two aces and two service winners, extending her lead
to 4-0. After the changeover, she gave a thumbs up to the crowd,
utterly brimming with confidence. Perry hit a lovely drop shot for a
clean winner in Game 5, but Likhovtseva fought back to hold for 1-4.
Sacramento was merely postponing the inevitable. Leading 40-15,
set points in hand, Perry pushed a backhand volley into the open
court, hopped into the air, and pumped her fist. The 19-year-old had
stared down a young lefty and a wily righthander, dispatching them by
a combined score of 5-1.
Jolene Watanabe stopped short of agreeing that Shenay Perry has locked
up MVP honors for the 2003 New York Buzz, but she knows the kid from
Washington, DC has been a real bright spot. "Right now she's been
playing so wonderfully. She's very young, too, so we're trying to
have her play one match at a time and not think about anything."
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 18, CAPITALS 14
Fifth set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Daniel Nestor
The Capitals still had a glimmer of hope. Daniel Nestor's wicked serve
has paid dividends throughout the season and a win over Bower could
force overtime and/or a supertiebreaker. When the Canadian stormed
out to a 2-0 lead, this scenario was looking pretty reasonable. The
back row rowdies were having none of it, though, screaming their heads
off with "B-U-Z-Z" painted across their four bare chests. And after
being burned by some very questionable officiating earlier in
the match, New York got a real break at the end of Game 3. A second
serve by Bower was at least three inches wide, but nobody called it
out. Bower grinned, now on the board at 1-2. Nestor was not amused
as he pleaded with umpire Pantano. "Did you see his face after that?
He's laughing his head off because it's so ridiculous. You weren't
even watching!" Pantano calmly replied, "I was watching. Let's play."
After a mutual display of impressive left-handed serving, Nestor
attempted to close it out at 4-3. He led 30-15, but Bower was finally
getting a read on his serve. Justin struck a winning return down the
line, celebrating with a double fist pump. The very next point saw
Bower lace another backhand winner and shake his fist while jogging
around the court. Nestor answered with an ace, but double faulted on
game point to force yet another tiebreak. The Capitals were in dire
straits now. If Bower could pull out the tiebreak,
New York would have its second victory of the season...
- JB serving: Nestor buries a backhand return in the net -- 1-0 BUZZ
- JB: Inside-out forehand winner by Bower -- 2-0 BUZZ
- DN: Nice rally ends on a winning Nestor volley -- 2-1 BUZZ
- DN: Big service winner from Nestor -- 2-2
- JB: Nestor can't make a tough stretch volley -- 3-2 BUZZ
- JB: Bower double faults away his lead -- 3-3
- DN: Nestor nudges a forehand volley past the baseline -- 4-3 BUZZ
- DN: Bower takes a big swing on a forehand return, ripping a clean winner -- 5-3 BUZZ
FINAL SCORE: BUZZ 23, CAPITALS 18
The win may only improve coach Jolene Watanabe's record to 2-6, but
she's still speaking highly of her New York Buzz. "We're not playing
with desperation at all. This whole year, we've just had some unlucky
breaks. They know that and they know they can beat every team in this
league... They're not gonna give up, especially since this is only the
second half of the season." Justin Bower was more realistic, conceding
"our season's over as far as being in contention." Nonetheless, he believes the fans "just want to
see us play our best tennis. Obviously, we want to try and produce
that. That was the idea, to come out here and look for chances and
look for places where we can produce some magic. I think we had an
awesome night tonight."
Perhaps nicest of all for Justin Bower was being able to score this
rare victory alongside late fill-in Shaun Rudman. "We grew up in the
same town, played against each other at least 20 times in juniors
growing up, and played a bunch of tournaments together on the tour, so
I've known him since I was 10 years old." The loquacious Bower does
have a bit of a twisted sense of humor, by the way, and he couldn't
resist calling Rudman "the most homophobic guy I've ever met."
Supposedly Bower needed some help stretching before the match, only
to have Rudman respond, "Not gonna do it, you're on your own." An
odd footnote to an odd night which saw the hapless Buzz upset the
mighty Capitals.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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