TENNIS
Night Doubles final set
Co-workers in the office during the day, Mikael Maatta and Jan Axel Tribler have been working well together on the court at night as well.
Maatta and Tribler will team up one more time this weekend in the final of the Kailua Racquet Club Men's Night Doubles tournament.
The fifth seeds overcame the elements to grind out a 7-6 (3), 7-5 win over No. 6 Bradley Lum-Tucker and Jesse Paer last night in the semifinals of the 36th annual event.
Maatta and Tribler advance to tomorrow's championship at 7:15 p.m. and will face the third-seeded duo of Minh Le and Wei-Yu Su.
Le and Su knocked off No. 2 Ryan Ideta and Malino Oda 6-3, 7-5 in the second match of the night, assuring the tournament of a first-time champion tomorrow. The result also ended Ideta's quest for a record seventh Night Doubles title.
The start of the match was delayed about a half-hour by showers blowing across Kailua, and play was halted twice more during the match.
"We don't call this a pretty tennis match -- this was a fight," Maatta said. "It could have gone any way."
"The wind was tough," Tribler said. "On the court the ball was moving around a lot, so it wasn't too good a match."
Maatta, a 27-year-old from Sweden, and Tribler, 25 from Denmark, were doubles partners for a season at Hawaii Pacific University and continue to work together at John Hancock.
They hope their experience on the court will result in their first KRC Night Doubles title.
"We work together and play together. I see this guy more than anybody," Maatta said.
To which Tribler joked: "Which is not good. Kind of scary."
The loss ended Lum-Tucker's pursuit for a second tournament crown to add to the championship he won with Ikaika Jobe in 2004. Lum-Tucker and Jobe lost in the quarterfinals last year.
Lum-Tucker and Paer eliminated the top seeds and defending champs Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen in the quarterfinals on Tuesday with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win.
Though hardly rookies in the tournament, it had been a while since Lum-Tucker and Paer played together, and they came up just short in both sets last night.
"They were nothing flashy, just real solid," Lum-Tucker said. "Experience showed. They've been playing together all year and I think me and Jesse haven't played together probably since we were 16. It's been a while."
The teams stayed on serve through the first six games of the match before trading breaks. Lum-Tucker fired off back-to-back aces to go up 6-5 when rain stopped the match for about 20 minutes.
Maatta and Tribler used the delay to regroup and Maata won his serve to force the tiebreaker.
"The rain seemed to help us," Tribler said. "It took the momentum away."
A double fault by Paer to open the tiebreaker helped propel Maatta and Tribler to a 4-0 lead. Lum-Tucker and Paer battled back to close to 5-3, but the rally fell short when a Lum-Tucker volley went into the net and Tribler rifled a forehand down the middle for a winner.
"We got a big lead in the beginning, and when you get a lead like that you get more relaxed, while they might be a little more tight," Maatta said. "It was a tough match. "We were a little lucky, I think, too."
After a brief rain delay, Maatta and Tribler went up a break two games into the second set, only to have Lum-Tucker and Paer respond immediately. They went up 6-5, then relied on spectacular returns to break Lum-Tucker's serve and close out the match.
Maatta's return down the line brought match point, and a cross-court shot ended it.