My friends and fellow tennis lovers, forgive me but I am euphoric and also blissfully exhausted. Our day started with breakfast at 8am here in Rennes, France, with the match starting at 10am and ending at 10am. That is one heck of a tennis day so I am not going to get into any details but only to tell you that we have six ecstatic American 'Collegiate tennis players who gave their heart and soul to our countrymen, to their love of tennis, and to their respective colleges and teams.
As has happened in the past seven years that I have coached the American team, we were on the verge of disaster only to miraculously scratch and claw our way to win the final mixed doubles match against a incredible German team. We defeated the German team 4-3.. Our team was down 3-2 and had to pull out come from behind victories in tiebreakers in Men's Doubles and a tie breaker win in the decisive Mixed doubles to be able to represent the USA in the finals.
This is our 7th appearance in the finals (we have won five out of the past six championships. What a statement about our collegiate players. Don't think for a moment that this tournament is easy. The caliber of teams includes players as high as top 300 on the ATP circuit and top 120 on the WTA.
'Since I have to go to bed for the finals tomorrow, let me bullet point the match. Our women's singles got us a 2-0 team lead when Maegan Manasse (#2 singles) and Danielle Collins (#1 women's singles) won. Maegan won 6-4, 6-3. Danielle fought back to a 3rd set win 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
The men were caught in firestorms with the German singles players literally blasting the fuzz off the balls. #2 singles player, Austin Smith lost a heart breaker 7-6, 4-6, 7-5. In the first set Austin won a set point, but the official didn't see the point so Austin had to play the point over again.
Our next singles player Mackenzie McDonald lost to a 6"7" serving machine 7-6, 6-2.
Now things got very exciting. We were cruising in Women's doubles (with our team of Maegan Manasee and Brooke Austin)we were up 6-1, 3-1 when the German women had an out of body experiences and played flawless doubles to come back and defeat us 1-6, 7-5. 10-8 (3rd set tiebreaker)
With our team's backs against the wall, our men's doubles team of Mackenzie McDonald and Austin Smith were absolute saviors by climbing out of the Death Valley of tennis to win 5-7, 6-4, 10-8 (in the tiebreaker, we were down 0-4 and 5-8 but played with the determination and grit of Steel workers in a mine).
Now our team match is tied at 3-3 (which has happened in four of the past six years. Our team of Tom Fawcett and Brooke Austin put on a mixed doubles clinic to pull out the team victory 6-4, 7-6!!!!
Tomorrow we play the host team France (whom we defeated last year in the finals). We are expecting over a thousand fans. Such a glorious day, the fans, the tournament staff, and all the countries and their teams are absolutely awesome.
Send us some good old Red, White, and Blue magic over the Atlantic to us!!
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Greg Patton
Boise State Men's Tennis Coach
1910 University Dr
Boise, ID 83725
cell 208 484-2432
WAC Tennis Champions 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Big West Tennis Champions 1997, 1999, 2000
Big Sky Tennis Champions 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996
