Tennis out of medal contention after mixed doubles loss

by Joshua Weinstock on September 9, 2009

The U.S. Tennis Team was officially eliminated from medal contention Wednesday with a second-round loss in mixed doubles to Germany. The duo of Aaron Gomez and Jennifer Woyahn faced Germans Hans Toedter and Verena Fleckenstein and lost, 6-1, 6-0. The Germans won 12 unanswered points after the U.S. scored the first game point of the set. The first set is when you can “figure out your opponent’s weakness, and I believe our opponents figured out our weakness,” Woyahn said. Overall, the Germans were a “solid team, and made fewer mistakes than us.” The game started off looking good for the Americans after Woyahn served an ace on the way to a 1-0 lead. However, their lead didn’t last long as the Germans consistently returned serves and slammed the balls into adjoining courts, where they was impossible to return. Woyahn said she thought the Germans became “more aggressive after the opening point, and we just made more mistakes.” The twosome combined to make eight service errors to the Germans’ two. Three of those errors came at German game points. Also, the U.S. made two separate consecutive errors, giving away valuable points. The wind was a factor in the match. “It was hard to track our ball toss in the wind. We weren’t consistent with getting our first serves in, so that put pressure on our second serves,” Woyahn said. Head coach Howard Gorrell said the German twosome were new to the Deaflympics, but Toeder “was really impressive with his performance, and it was difficult to overcome.” Toeder was dominant throughout the duration of the match, slapping frozen rope forehands and effortlessly returning backhands. The U.S. had a chance to retain the lead after the match went 1-1 in the first set. But Gomez made four consecutive serves into the net, which gave the Germans a 2-1 lead, and they never looked back. The turning point came when Woyahn mirrored Gomez’s error in the fifth point of the match to give the Germans a 4-1 lead. The match went into advantage situations [40-40 score] only twice, and both occurred at the seventh match of the first set with the U.S. breaking advantage once. Toeder made sure it didn’t happen again as he ended the first set, 6-1, with an ace the Americans couldn’t return. The Germans maintained their intensity and turned up the pressure, sweeping the U.S., 6-0, in the second set and opening the first two points with shutouts. Overall, the Germans had the upper hand in aces, 4-2, and broke every serve the Americans had after the opening point.

Tennis out of medal contention after mixed doubles loss

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