Now that I’ve had time to think about it, it is time to try and describe what happened at Penick-Allison today. The morning started with me going to the allergist to get a shot, picking up a taco at El Chilito and heading to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum. I checked out the exhibit that has the first edition of World Tennis and walked down to the matches. You can pay $10 to park during the week around there (weekends you can usually find a spot) or be a member of the museum and park 2 blocks away for free.
The Texas Tech match started with Tech jumping out at #3 and Washington crushing Tech at #2 in doubles. You knew right away that #1 dubs was going to decide it. Carvalho and Rojmar for Tech broke to take a 6-5 lead, but were broken back immediately. Tech broke right back then served it out for the doubles point.
The weather had been overcast and a bit windy and the humidity was high. As the singles started, the sun came out a bit and it started to heat up. Texas Tech came out on fire and Washington looked beat. The Red Raiders was the first set in four of the six matches and they were not close. The only matches UDub took the first sets were Kildahl and Drabble at #3 and #4.
By 12:35 or so, Markovic and Carvalho had won at #1 and #2 to give Tech what looked like an insurmountable 3-0 lead. Markovic crushed a visibly beaten Jeeven Nedunchezhivan, 6-0 6-1 and Carvahlo was equally dominating in his 6-2 6-1 win over Patrik Fischer. Both Washington players looked outclassed and you thought that maybe the heat and humidity was getting to the Huskies.
In the meantime, Tech’s Milos Kustudija was in control at #6 over Tobi Obenaus and Tech was also close to taking the second sets at both #3 and #4. Kustudija was in total control, serving 6-1 5-3, 40-15. On the first point, Kustugija went for an inside-in forehand that was just a bit too much, missing long. I am not sure, but I think the second one was a double fault.
I was already typing the result on my phone to tweet it, but had to hold off. The match points came at 12:45.
Later in the game Kustudija was overruled and the wheels started to come off.
With Obenhaus gaining the break back to 4-5, I joked with a friend of mine, “It is approaching midnight here at Forest Hills and Guillermo Vilas has Manuel Orantes in a hole…”, referring to one of the greatest comebacks of all time in the 1975 U.S. Open Semifinals.
My buddy, who was starving, left to go eat.
In the meantime, on the other courts, UW was starting to come alive. Kildahl raced out to a 5-0 lead in the third over Gonzalo Escobar, Ryo Sekiguchi of UW split with Michael Breler at #5 and UW’s Derek Drabble got a quick break in the third on TT’s Christian Rojmar.
Texas Tech had cramping problems on all of the final courts except Rojmar and both Kustudija and Breler received medical attention at least once during the final set.
Escobar rallied back to 5-3 and actually had two break points on Kildahl’s serve, but the Norwegian fought back to deuce before cracking two huge serves and taking the first point for the Huskies.
It was now 1:45, exactly one hour after the match could’ve ended. But now Washington was in complete control. They were up a break on each of the courts and the Tech players were hurting. One-by-one UW grabbed the points until at 2:07, when Obenaus completed the amazing comeback.
Both coaches were exhausted afterwards.
“We have had, over the years, a couple of great comebacks, but I can say never have we put ourselves in a hole like we did today and come back to win,” Washington coach Matt Anger said. “It is, for sure, the greatest comeback that I’ve been a part of. This was special. As the match was going on, I thought maybe we were more ready and able to handle the weather. We were trying to finish the right way. If someone is going to get you, they have to earn it.”
He was right, you have to make the other team earn it. On the other hand, Tech coach Tim Siegel was obviously upset.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Siegel. “We were about to win this match in two and a half hours, but we didn’t get it done. That’s the way the season went for us. You have to give credit to Washington though. They fought back and won.”
What Siegel is referring to is the colossal collapses this team face had. It is the third time they have raced out to a 3-0 lead, only to have a team fight back to win. It happened early in the season at Arizona and more recently against Oklahoma State.
This one is going to hurt for awhile.
LONGHORNS BLEED SACRED HEART
The second match was a complete blowout. Sacred Heart was no match for the Texas.
The Longhorns went out with a purpose and were intense all the way through in a match were they could’ve easily relaxed.
Oliver Sajous was taken out of the singles lineup and the incomparable Jonah Kane-West was the first guy off the court at line six. Within almost two minutes, Dimitar Kutrovsky and Miguel Reyes Varela were off and it was done.
The Pioneers enjoyed their opportunity to play on the big stage and seemed like a nice group.
COROVIC STAYS HOME
There is no official word on why, but UT’s top female player, Vanja Corovic, stayed home this weekend in Austin and was seen wondering Penick-Allison on Friday. The obvious guess would be disciplinary reasons after a tirade she threw at the Big 12 tournament, almost costing the Longhorns the win over Texas A&M.
SEIDER OUT AT TCU
Jack Seider was noticeably missing from TCU’s lineup and roster this weekend. He’s a great kid, so I hope things work out for him.
[...] the Longhorns really don’t have any scholarships to hand out unless Corovic moves on. That whole situation is on hold it [...]