I spent much of this Thursday on lowly Court 21 where Rosalyn Nideffer and Patricia Hy-Boulais, fresh off an upset win over Schultz-McCarthy and Tauziat, were set to take on Florencia Labat and Naoko Kijimuta. I ended up sitting with a fairly large contingent of Japanese fans who exuberantly cheered for Naoko and Flo throughout.
The tennis dress phenomenon really is spreading. Patricia Hy-Boulais sported a very nice one in this match, but that didn't help her in the first set. Florencia and Naoko were on fire. Flo was even SMILING, for crying out loud, which I have never seen her do during a match. I think she's finally found a partner she enjoys playing with. It's too bad that Kijimuta's skills are limited. She's good at the net but has mediocre footwork, rather sluggish reflexes, a pretty weak serve, and inconsistent groundstrokes. Flo was the star of the first set, which they took 6-1 after a love break of Nideffer.
The wily 30-somethings didn't go away, though. They immediately broke Kijimuta to open the second set. It was all holds after that to 5-4, with Nideffer serving. Labat and Kijimuta earned two break points in that crucial game but Ros and Patricia fought them off and won the set 6-4.
The streak of games won on serve continued in the third set. Hy-Boulais got down 30-40 in the sixth game, but she and Nideffer reeled off three straight winners and got to 3-all. The next game was a long one, with weak link Kijimuta finally broken to make it 4-3. A Nideffer hold followed, giving her and Patricia a 5-3 lead in the final set.
Florencia, serving well all afternoon, got down 15-30 before she and Naoko fought back to 5-4. Hy-Boulais then served for the match, but the Argentina/Japan duo came out focused and ready. They got a break point and made the most of it -- a big Florencia winner to the baseline made it 5-5. Kijimuta then rolled through her service game, ripping a backhand down the line at 40-0 to take a 6-5 lead. With their backs now against the wall, Hy-Boulais and Nideffer did not crack. A Nideffer service winner at 40-15 sent the match to a do or die third set tiebreak.
The old timers (as tennis pros go) jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the breaker, but Flo and Naoko battled back to 4-all.
On the 18th point of this incredibly tense tiebreak, a forehand by Kijimuta apparently catches the baseline but is ruled out on a late call. Everything comes to a complete stop -- the crowd and the players are stunned into silence. Then the Japanese fans near me begin shouting at the chair umpire. Hy-Boulais and Nideffer congratulate each other and walk to the net. Florencia finally speaks up, asking the umpire if she's absolutely sure that the ball was long. The umpire responds that it was too close to overrule. Labat reluctantly agrees to accept the loss and shake hands with the opponents, but she makes a point of blowing off the umpire.
Despite the unfortunate ending, this was without a doubt the best match I attended in three days at the '96 US Open. There were nervous errors on big points from all four players, but the last two sets were incredibly close and exciting. It's a shame that Florencia and Naoko weren't able to score the victory, because they would have had a realistic path to the quarterfinals. Instead, they went home with a very tough loss. They haven't played together since, but I don't know if we should read anything into that (Florencia has only played one fall '96 tournament).
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