Rain fails to dampen competitive spirit at LG&T Challenger

By JEFFREY DUNHAM
Aug 8, 10:50 pm EDT

The first match of the overcast day occurred at a pace that left many thinking that we might beat the rain after all. Chilean No. 1 seed Paul Capdeville dispatched unseeded American Jesse Witten with tremendous ease 6-1, 6-0. Witten was already making travel arrangements as the late-arriving crowd entered the stands. Capdeville played in his consistent, deep-hitting manner, but did nothing spectacular in his demolition of the lackluster Witten, although the matched served as a reminder of the importance of good depth versus extreme pace.

A much closer match saw the battle of unseeded Americans Rajeev Ram and Brendan Evans. Evans had just come off a stirring victory over No. 2 seed Ilia Bozoljac of Serbia and perhaps he was feeling a bit of a letdown today. In the second set, Ram shanked a backhand that gave him two match points with Evans serving at 5-6. Evans could not recover and lost the match 6-3, 7-5.

Surprising Italian Luigi D'Agord saw his run of excellent form come to an end as he was defeated by Australian No. 7 seed Carsten Ball. The first set went to a tiebreak, where unforced errors by both players kept the score even until D'Agord missed with an attempted angled drop volley off a drop shot by Ball to give Ball the set. This was the first set lost by D'Agord all week including qualifying, where he got a walkover in the first round when American Phillip Simmonds withdrew. It would prove to be a portentous loss.

The second set began with some slight frustration from Ball.

"How could I miss that?" he groaned after missing an easy backhand.

A rain delay at 1:00 pm with Ball serving at 3-4 held the possibility that D'Agord could regroup, but when play began again at 2:30 pm, Ball held at love and set the tone for the rest of the match. The second set went to a tiebreak, where Ball got the mini-break on a D'Agord forehand struck well over the baseline. Ball would go on to win the tiebreak and the match 7-6(4), 7-5(5).

Ball lived up to his tournament seeding in this match, proving very capable at the net and hitting his groundstrokes with controlled aggression. D'Agord, while showing much promise, plays in a manner that is somewhat stiff and is reminiscent of Andy Roddick, particularly on the backhand side. With more experience and a bit more relaxation while leaning into his shots, he would enjoy more success in matches like these.

In doubles action, the colorful Battistone brothers narrowly defeated Evans and his British partner Ken Skupski 7-6(5), 2-6, 10-8. The Battistones effectively employed the Australian "I" formation, striking volleys at seemingly impossible angles at times. The angles seemed to surprise Evans, who interpreted their moves as double hits on more than one occasion.

The wind seemed to be affecting the taller Brian Battistone's extremely high ball toss, making his serve more inconsistent than usual. However, the steep angle at which the serve strikes the court causes the ball to bounce up high and out of the strike zone of the server on almost every occasion. These returns sometimes ended up in the tarp.

The match tiebreak opened with a rapid-fire exchange at the net, with several sharply angled volleys, lobs, and overheads. The Battistones would eventually win one more of this type of exchange and take the match, keeping alive their hopes of winning a Challenger title and perhaps gaining a coveted wild card into the U.S. Open later this month.

When questioned by spectators about their unusual racquet, Brian Battistone claimed that the angles of the two handles puts less stress on the wrist and back, allowing the body to be in better overall balance. He also answered the question about his gravity-defying serve, indicating that he played volleyball frequently and tried it as a result of his success in spiking the ball in that sport. The skills have transferred!

The evening's feature match between Slovakian No. 5 seed and 2006 finalist Lukas Lacko and former Georgia Bulldogs No. 3 player Travis Helgeson was interrupted by rain at 4-4 in the first set. Helgeson showed some inexperience on his approach shots, missing some opportunities on a few short balls by Lacko. He will learn quickly that these opportunities must be taken from more seasoned competitors like Lacko.

Helgeson has had some notable results in the past year. He reached the round of 16 at this year's NCAA Singles Championships, where he was the No. 4 seed. Also, he defeated two-time and current NCAA Singles Champion Somdev Devvarman of Virginia at the ITA All-America Singles National Championship in October of 2007.

Finally, although he had to retire from his singles match this week because of a back problem, Richard Bloomfield of Great Britain confirmed that legendary coach and former tour player Paul Annacone made a brief appearance in Binghamton this week. Annacone is the new British Davis Cup coach, and occasionally travels with the British players. He was seen walking the grounds at Rec Park rather anonymously. Annacone is probably best known as the long-time coach of Pete Sampras and Tim Henman, but he did reach a career-high singles ranking of No. 12 and was ranked No. 3 in doubles.

Saturday's action will begin at 11:00 am with the completion of the Lacko/Helgeson match, followed by the second doubles semifinal featuring the No. 1 seeded team of Lukas Dlouhy and Tomas Zib of the Czech Republic vs. the Battistones. Then the first semifinal featuring Ball vs. Ram will precede Capdeville vs. the winner of Lacko/Helgeson.