Big Brothers vs Little Brothers

Boys Under 18 Doubles | At the recent Junior Spring Break tournament in Victoria, the showdown was set in the under 18 doubles semi-finals between big brothers William Baumann and Daniel Shen and their respective younger siblings, Alexander Baumann and Steven Shen. For Alex and Steven, they had come off an impressive win in their previous match against the number two seeded team of Alden Eakins and Graham Huelscher. While the younger siblings made their 6-2, 6-3 win look easy, older brothers Willie and Daniel struggled in their first set against their opponents from Victoria. They eventually emerged the winner, beating John Shukin and Sam Smyth 7-6, 6-3. During the warm-up, there were a little mocking from the older brothers, and the younger team teased back at them. When the warm-up period ended, these two teams were ready to battle out for their bragging rights in their final evening match. Alex opened the match with his serve. Unlike in his previous doubles match where he held serve throughout the match, his was the first to be broken in this semi-final match. Further serves were broken from the rest of the players. The scoreline stayed closed throughout the first set until Willie and Daniel were leading 6-5, and Alex's service game came under pressure again. After four deuces, the older siblings snatched the game and the first set.

The second set started off with a service break for Alex and Steven. Daniel's serve was broken. Willie and Daniel broke right back by taking Steven's serve. Just when you thought this second set scoreline would see-saw between the two teams, Willie and Daniel reeled off the next 3 games to lead 4-1. All hope for a third set seemed to slip away. Alex and Steven realized it was a do-or-die moment, pulled their doubles game together to find their second wind. Game by game, they crawled their way back to even the set at 4-4. By now the Willie and Daniel appeared to be frustrated at losing their grip on this set. Hanging on, they managed to hold together to break Steven's serve for a 5-4 lead. This lead was lost when Daniel saw his service game broken next. At 5-5, Alex served well to hold serve. Willie served next, and his service game went deuce a number of times. At one point he had two set points against him, but managed turn the advantage to his favour. And on to the tie-breaker. At this moment in the match it almost seemed like Willie and Daniel were defending their position rather than being on the offensive. And that was exactly what Alex and Steven did in the tie-breaker. Aggressive play all around saw them raced to a 6-1 lead before taking the tie-break at 7-3. With both teams tied at one set all, Daniel announced his retirement from the match from stomach cramps, much to the delight of Alex and Steven.