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No. 2 team serves upset
After a couple of close calls in recent years, Ikaika Jobe and Bradley Lum-Tucker used their powerful serves to break through to claim their first Kailua Racquet Club Men's Night Doubles championship last night.
Jobe and Lum-Tucker held their serve all night and got the breaks they needed to knock off defending tournament champions and top seeds Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen 6-3, 7-6 (0), 6-2 last night at KRC.
Jobe and Lum-Tucker, the second-seeded team in the tournament, did not drop a set in winning the 34th annual event. They reached the semifinals last year and played in the finals two years ago before winning the crown this time around.
"It's my fourth year playing, and we came close before, so we wanted it a lot," Jobe said.
Bruggemann and Chen had three chances to break Jobe's serve in the opening game of the match, but couldn't convert. They wouldn't get another opportunity the rest of the night.
"Usually I have a good return, but they served too well," Bruggemann said. "They got all their first serves in, placed it well and did exactly what they needed to do to hold, easily. They just really outplayed us today."
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Jobe credited his coach, Dr. Calvin Nii, for helping him and Lum-Tucker prepare for the tournament. He maintained his solid play at the service line and at the net, while Lum-Tucker, who struggled with his first serves in Friday's semifinals, set up easy chances at the net for Jobe with tough serves.
"I thought Brad served the best I've ever seen him," Jobe said. "It's nice to hit volleys off of his serve."
Both teams held serve early in the match until Lum-Tucker lofted a lob that landed just inside the baseline for the first break of the night to go up 5-3.
Neither team could muster a break in the second set, forcing a tiebreaker.
Bruggemann and Chen won second-set tiebreakers twice earlier in this year's tournament and had a chance to knot the match at a set apiece. But Jobe won the first point of the tiebreaker with a backhand return of Chen's serve en route to a 7-0 win that tipped the momentum in their favor.
"We just wanted to get to the tiebreaker and hopefully steal a point or two on their serve," Bruggemann said. "It just didn't go our way and they came out firing on our serves."
Said Lum-Tucker: "That was a big set for us. That gave us a lot of confidence right there."
Jobe and Lum-Tucker then went up a break early in the third set, taking a 3-1 lead. They held serve and ended the match when Jobe fired a backhand return off Bruggemann's serve.
Jobe still has a year of college eligibility left at Boise State and couldn't claim his share of the $2,400 first prize. Lum-Tucker, however, recently ended his college career and already has plans for the check coming his way.
"A lot of Jamba Juice," he said.
