Big Brother vs Little Brother Round 3

Coquitlam Junior Spring Challenger  |  Round 3. Ring the bell! For the second straight year, these two Baumann brothers met in the final once again. William, 17, seeded No. 3 and Alexander, 15, seeded No.2 battled through their respective half of the draw to meet each other in the finals of the boys under 18 singles event.

Alexander had an easier time getting through the previous rounds. Having lost only 9 games in his first three matches, Alexander was never threaten in his charge to the finals. He beat David Chen of Surrey, 6-0, 6-2, Dexter Docherty of Vancouver, 6-3, 6-3 and then Kelowna's David Schriemer 6-0, 6-1 in the semi-finals.

By contrast, William had to fight through his first three matches in three sets each. He had to dig deep to keep his chance alive to defend his title he won last year over his younger brother. Against Burnaby's Victor Choy in the first round, he lost the first set 6-4, and was down 2-5 in the second set. When it looked like all was lost, he caught his second wind. Game by game he battled back to take the next five games, and then the third set super-tiebreaker at 10-7. His next round match was against Alexander Saayman of Kamloops. After being down one set, he stormed back to take the next two sets and won 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. The semi-final pitted him against the top seed and club mate Ken Zhang. Both Ken and William had met twice in tournament matches and it is one a piece. William won the first match-up in last summer tournament in Whistler. Ken returned the favour when he beat William for the club under 18 title two weeks later. This time William was determined not to loose twice in a row to Ken. Right from the start both players battled hard and split the first two sets evenly. The third set saw William breaking Ken's serve twice to take a 5-2 lead. Ken was not ready to give it up. He broke William's serve next, saved a match point on his own serve and went on to close the gap to 4-5. On the 10th service game, William did not want to miss another opportunity to close out the match. He held his serve to win the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

This match up could not be more opposite between these two brothers. Alexander was brimming with confidence, while William was lucky to have reached the finals. But both brothers were eager to face the challenge. Once the match began, the younger Baumann lead from start to finish. Alexander laid claim to the under 18 title by defeating the defending champion 6-4, 6-2. This year there are no tears from Alexander, but he was happy that he can finally claim an official victory over his brother. William was disappointed with the outcome but he knew deep down that sooner or later his younger sibling will get a win over him. But he was hoping it would not have come so soon. Will there be another "Big Brother vs Little Brother" round 4 before the season is out? After all, this is the final junior year for William, and this could very well be the final chapter in their junior rivalry.