Results - Saturday August 15, 2009

Van’t Hof shrugs off loss of luggage in doubles victory

by Jeffrey Dunham
Aug 15, 10:25 pm EDT

Van't Hof and Ball take on Anderson and DeVoest

"I have to go practice now with the one racquet I have," lamented Kaes Van’t Hof this afternoon at the LG&T Tennis Challenger. Apparently, the airline had lost Van’t Hof’s luggage earlier in the week and they had yet to sort it out. "They’re working on it," he said.

Kaes Van't Hof

Van’t Hof appeared untroubled as he and his partner, Australian-American Carsten Ball, won their doubles semifinal in a third set match tiebreak, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-6. In an entertaining doubles match in which three of the four players were left-handed, Californians Ball and Van’t Hof were able to dictate play just enough to edge the team of Kevin Anderson of South Africa and and Ryler DeHeart of the USA.

The 23 year-old 6’1" Van’t Hof plays left-handed and is currently ranked No. 667 in singles. However, his doubles ranking is No. 173 on the strength of three Futures wins this year in Panama, Costa Rica, and China. In Challengers, he has reached one quarterfinal and three finals this year. Last week in Vancouver, he and partner Ramon Delgado lost to the South African team of Kevin Anderson and Rik DeVoest. DeVoest, incidentally, will play against Van’t Hof again this week in tomorrow’s doubles final at 12:00 PM with partner Scott Lipsky of the USA.

Anderson and Deheart

Van’t Hof is the son of Robert Van’t Hof, a former tour player himself and coach of Lindsay Davenport in the 1990’s. Kaes attended USC, where he graduated with a degree in business and accounting. While there, he won the PAC-10 singles and doubles and won the 2008 NCAA Doubles Championship.

More recently, Van’t Hof played World Team Tennis for the Newport Beach Breakers, which was broadcast on TV. He had the honor of playing none other than Andre Agassi in both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles. He and partner Delgado beat Agassi and partner Nathan Healey, an LG&T veteran, in the men’s doubles. He lost to Agassi and partner Lisa Raymond in the mixed doubles with his partner Julie Ditty. Of the experience, Van’t Hof said that he really enjoyed the opportunity to play against Agassi, even if it was three years after the American legend’s retirement.

"Agassi still hits the ball so clean," marveled Van’t Hof of the man he claimed as his idol. Of his own performance, Van’t Hof asserted that "I was zoning in that match." Hopefully, that lost luggage will either find its way to Binghamton or Van’t Hof won’t break a string during tomorrow’s final!