RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Wei-Yu Su hit the ball over partner Minh Le in the final match of the Kailua Racquet Club Men's Night Doubles.

Su, Le serve up KRC doubles title

Following a night when Mother Nature reigned supreme, two evenly matched teams regrouped to play a classic tournament final.

In a match where momentum switched sides throughout, third-seeded Wei-Yu Su and Minh Le played to their individual strengths to defeat fifth-seeded Mikael Maatta and Jan Tribler 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4 in the Blue Moon Kailua Racquet Club Men's Night Doubles championship.

Su and Le, two former BYU-Hawaii stars, had not been in touch for more than seven years. They were able to blend their games and overcome a 44-team tournament bracket. It was the first title for both players.

"We had not seen each other for seven years," Su said. "We hit for 1 hour before our first match. I guess it turned out fine."

Tribler and Maatta, both former Hawaii Pacific standouts, came out strong to start the rain-delayed match. They quickly took the first two games to go up 3-1. Momentum then took its first shift of the match as Su and Le went on to dominate the next five games en route to a first-set win.

Tribler and Maatta both lost service games due to a strong return game from Le. Su, the most prolific server in the match, won all three of his service games, including the decisive set winner.

Le blasted crosscourt returns to set up easy putaways at the net, while Su kept his opponents off-balance with slice and topspin serves to their backhands.

"One of my strong points is my return-of-serve game," Le said. "For us to win I have to return well. I was locked in today and it really made a difference."

When the second set began, Maatta found his return game and Tribler dominated at the net as the team reclaimed control of the match, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Unfortunately for Maatta and Tribler, Su and Le soon found themselves hitting all corners of the court, taking 12 of the next 15 points. Back-to-back aces from Le gave them a 5-3 lead.

"We had a very slow start to the match," Maatta said. "We were very passive in the beginning and the match did not turn for us until we started to be aggressive."

Overcoming match point in the next game, Tribler and Maatta went on to forge an incredible comeback, forcing the set into a tiebreaker. Using well-placed topspin lobs to push their opponents off the net, Maatta and Tribler claimed the second set after Le made back-to-back hitting errors.

In the only third set played over the entire main draw of the tournament, both teams had their return games working. After Su and Tribler held serve to start the set, there were four consecutive service breaks as both teams tried to create separation.

Neither team was able to gain more than a one-game lead until the final point of the match, when a Su crosscourt return caused a Tribler volley error.

"The momentum swings were huge in this match," Le said. "The key was holding our last two service games to put the pressure on them to win their serve and stay in the match. We knew our returns were tough and we wanted to make them work for every point."