FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Michael Bruggeman, teamed with Erich Chen, beat Ryan Ideta and Erik Sandblom in the Men's Night Doubles final last night.
Bruggemann, Chen
win Night DoublesThe seventh seeds, who
played together at Santa Clara,
win the tournament for the first time
In a match of dizzying momentum swings that didn't seem to want to end, Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen outlasted the team of Ryan Ideta and Erik Sandblom in the final of the 33rd Kailua Racquet Club Men's Night Doubles tournament last night.
Bruggemann and Chen, college teammates at Santa Clara, fought back from a 5-1 deficit in the decisive fifth set to pull out the 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 victory over the tournament's third-seeded duo in just under four hours.
"This is an amazing feeling," Bruggemann said. "If you told me a week ago that we'd win this tournament I would say no way."
The first championship for the seventh-seeded duo of Bruggemann and Chen denied Ideta a record seventh tournament championship with his fifth different partner. Sandblom was going for his second tournament title.
"They really played well. They played a little bit better than we did," Ideta said. "They played hard and battled."
The start of the match was delayed by a shower that blew through Kailua as the teams were warming up.
Bruggemann and Chen went up a break three games into the match and went on to win the first set 6-2, as Ideta and Sandblom dropped their first set of the tournament.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ryan Ideta and his partner Erik Sandblom fell to Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen in five sets last night.Ideta and Sandblom turned the momentum of the match by breaking Bruggemann's serve midway through the second set to go up 3-1. They later broke Chen's serve by winning five straight points after falling behind 40-0 and went on to win the set 6-1.
The teams stayed on serve through the first five games of the critical third set until Bruggemann snuck a shot past Ideta on the first break point of the set. But Ideta and Sandblom answered immediately by breaking Bruggemann's serve.
Trailing 5-4 in the set, Sandblom and Ideta went up 40-15, but Bruggemann and Chen fought back and won the set when Bruggemann's shot tickled the end line.
Bruggemann and Chen went up 3-0 in the fourth set, only to see Ideta and Sandblom win 12 of the next 15 points to tie the set at 3-3.
Ideta and Sandblom then broke Bruggemann's serve to take a 6-5 lead and Ideta held his serve to close out the set.
After a 20-minute rain delay prior to the fifth set, Ideta and Sandblom took command by dropping just four points en route to taking a 4-0 lead.
But Bruggemann and Chen broke both Ideta and Sandblom to claw back into the match. Sandblom had a serve for the match leading 5-4, but couldn't put the Santa Clara duo away and they tied the set on Chen's overhead smash.
"I just wanted to win my serve, go one point at a time and see what happens," Bruggemann said. "I was just so tired I wasn't even thinking out there."
Bruggemann held his serve to take a 6-5 advantage with Ideta going back to serve to stay in the match.
But Bruggemann and Chen went up 40-0 for triple match point. After losing a point, Chen closed the match by blistering a backhand return past Ideta.
Chen was awarded the first Sam Caldwell Outstanding Amateur award prior to the match. Tournament director Bruce Nagel was named the 2003 Peter Isaak Sportsmanship Award winner.
