Results - Sunday August 16, 2009

DeVoest & Lipsky crowned doubles champions

by Jeffrey Dunham
Aug 16, 7:50 pm EDT

The doubles final of the LG&T Tennis Challenger got underway just after noon today in sweltering conditions on center court. While the air temperature hovered around 90 degrees, the temperature at the court surface must easily have exceeded 100 degrees. Despite the heat, South African Rik DeVoest and American Scott Lipsky, the No. 1 seeds, defeated the unseeded team of American Kaes Van’t Hof and Australian Carsten Ball, 7-6 (2), 6-4.

A double fault by Ball gave DeVoest and Lipsky the first break point of the match in the first game, but Van’t Hof saved it with a well-placed overhead. Things proceeded on serve from there, with each team gaining small openings at 0-30 and 15-30. A tiebreaker seemed inevitable. DeVoest and Lipsky got to a quick 6-2 lead in the tiebreak and a 111 mph ace by Lipsky slammed the door shut on the first set.

In the second set, a long forehand by Ball on deciding point at 3-3 gave the crucial first service break of the match to DeVoest and Lipsky. The top seeds then held serve routinely two more times to take the match.

After the match, Van’t Hof thanked the crowd and joked, "Rik should stop beating me. He doesn’t need the points." This was obviously a friendly match and the players clearly respected each other.

Lipsky added that "it’s great to be playing in New York. Even though my bio says that I am from Huntington Beach, California, I was born and raised in New York." Lipsky is, in fact, a Long Island native.