Big Brother vs Little Brother: The Story Continues...

Who would have thought after four official match ups between these two Baumann brothers that their story would continue beyond the junior tournaments? The last time Alexander and William competed against each other was at the Whistler Junior Fall Champs Classic tournament in 2011. That tournament was William's final junior tournament and their match-up was the final match in the boys under 18 doubles event and was considered the final chapter between the two. Fast forward to 2013, two years later. Official match ups number five and six occurred within eight days of each other. What are the chances of number five and six coming so close together?

CTC Johan Memorial Club Closed Tournament

Match up number five was setup at the club closed men singles event in early September. Alexander was seeded No.5 and William was seeded No. 7. Both were placed in the bottom half of the draw. Before their semi-final match, both had to played the No. 3 and No. 2 seeded players respectively. Alexander had little trouble disposing of Simon Cooper 6-1, 6-1 and William beat out Dale Nguyen 6-4, 7-6. A surprised win for William as Nguyen was expected to triumph in that match. William knew his younger brother was now at a higher level than when they last met at the Whistler tournament, but he was still determined to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Alas that did not happen as Alexander held command of the match and coasted to a 6-4, 6-1 victory. This put him at 4-1 head to head lead.

In the men's singles final, he faced the top seed Karim Fakim. Right from the start the match see-sawed back and forth between the two players. Baumann won the first set 7-5 after failing to convert multiple set points at 5-4. At 3-3 in the second set he lost focus and gave away three easy games to Fakim. At one set a piece, the third set was just back and forth between the two. Late in the set, Baumann found himself down 4-5 but saved a couple of match points and levelled the set at 5 games all. He held serve to go up 6-5 and put the pressure on Fakim's service game. Baumann had his first match point, but Fakim saved it. On the second match point and after three hours and five minutes the fight went out on Fakim when his down the line forehand went wide. The final score was a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 victory that sealed Baumann status as CTC best for this year.

Whistler Fall Classic Tournament

Now fast forward again to eight days later. This Whistler road trip brought out these two Baumann brothers and another past junior Mark Lintott. A fourth person, Jedi Tetik, pulled out at the last moment. Lintott and Tetik graduated from the junior ranks last year. Alexander entered in the men's 4.5 singles event, and William signed up for both the 4.5 and 4.0 men's events. Lintott had also registered in two events, the men's 4.0 and 3.5 singles. In a space of 50 hours, Lintott played seven matches, while William finished six.

The sixth match up between these two brothers came in the semi-final of the men's 4.5 singles event. William battled past Jamie Conway 6-4, 7-6 in his quarter-final match while the No. 2 seed Alexander had an easier time beating Michal Suchanek 6-1, 6-3. In their semi-final encounter William had little answer to his younger brother's game. His mobility was hampered by his lower back problem. Alexander raced to 6-0, 5-0 lead before conceded two games. This added another win to the head to head contest, which is now 5-1 in the younger brother's favour.

In the final, Alexander was up against the number one seed, Leo Tang. These two met twice before with Tang winning both times. The last time they played was a little more than a year ago in Victoria. On that day Baumann had already chalked up 7.5 hours of match play in 10 hours. Facing Tang in his fourth match of that day, he still gave a good fight before tailing off 6-4, 6-2. Now this time there was a sense of real confidence in Alexander. He knew he was in a better position to get through this match. The tone of the match was set at the beginning. They traded hard hitting ground strokes and both were aggressive in coming to the net. Despite getting his early break, he was broken back and fell 2-3 before holding serve and breaking again. At 4-3 he moved on to win the first set. After leading early for a 2-0 and 3-2 lead, he fell to 3-5 before tying at 5-5. Tang moved up yet again to try to setup a third set. Alexander fought back to force a tie-breaker instead. The first point went to Tang in the tie-breaker but Baumann turned the heat on to lead 5-1 before ending it at 7-3 and his title victory.

With a semi-final appearance in the 4.5 singles event in the bag, William turned to his 4.0 event and made sure his focus was spot on in the 4.0 semi-final. He beat Ryo Shigeoka 6-4, 6-2. Shigeoka had beaten the second seed the match before. In the final, Baumann made no apology with his 6-1, 6-2 win over Kelly Lendvoy who had beaten the top seed in the quarter-final.

The other 4.0 semi-final saw Lintott losing to Lendvoy 6-4, 6-3. Lintott had to battle past two three set matches to get to the semi-final. In the 3.5 event, Lintott had to work his way through to the final as well. He had a three set match against the second seed John Hylton-Foster in the first round, and a tough 7-6, 7-5 in the quarter-final against Greg Gladwell. Rob Mcquaid was his semi-final opponent who he beat 6-2, 6-2. The setup in the final was against the number one seed Gordon Sung. After winning the first set easily 6-1, he lost the second by the same score. The third set saw Lintott moving up to a 4-1 lead before giving up three games in a row. At 4-4 he quickly closed the window on Sung come back momentum. The next two games were hard fought but he came through to win the set and match and his first ever singles title of his career.

With the rain started in the mid afternoon and all outdoor matches moved indoor, Lintott's match was the last of our group's three finals to be completed. It was now late on Sunday evening and with the rain pouring down, the drive back to Tri-cities was a bit more cautious. A dinner break at 9:30 pm to feed our hungry stomachs before we set off home. After William came through with his 4.0 singles victory, there was a brief talk of a possible triple crowning glory for the group. That thought was quickly dismissed as the other two yet to be played finals were against the top seeds. Who knew we would be going home with triple crowns?

William vs Alexander Head to Head Line-up

0-1: Junior Spring Break 2010
       Boys' U18 doubles semi-final – Alexander/Steven won 5-7, 7-6 ret
1-1: Coquitlam Junior Spring Challenger 2010
       Boys' U18 singles final –  William won 6-2, 6-4
1-2: Coquitlam Junior Spring Challenger 2011
       Boys' U18 singles final – Alexander won 6-4, 6-2
1-3: Whistler Junior Fall Champs Classic 2011
       Boys' U18 doubles final – Alexander/Steven won 8-5
1-4: CTC Johan Memorial Club Closed 2013
       Men singles semi-final – Alexander won 6-4, 6-1
1-5: Whistler Fall Classic 2013
       Men's 4.5 singles semi-final – Alexander won 6-0, 6-2