The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net THEY were taken to the limit, but Nikkita Fountain and Grand Bahamian Larikah Russell used their 10 year wealth of experience to pull off a hard fought super tie breaker victory over the rookie youthful team of Grand Bahamian Simone Pratt and American Ryann Foster. The final score was 7-6, 5-7, 10-2. Fountain and Russell, the wild card entries for the second consecutive year, made sure that history didn't repeat itself from last year when they were eliminated in the first round of the Bahamas Women's Open Tennis Tournament. Relying on each other to pull the other when they were down, Fountain and Russell kept their composure and they were able to prevail by turning up the heat in the super tie breaker to avoid the wild card team of Pratt and Foster from coming back for a major upset. "I think we just stayed tough. We ended up losing the second set after being up 5-2 and we had to stay focused after that," Fountain said. "We kept it going and just stayed tough and took advantage of when they hit a weak ball." Fountain and Russell jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the tie breaker and they didn't give up a point the rest of the way as point after point, Fountain clinched her fist and shouted: "Let's go, come on," as Russell congratulated her. When asked what made the difference in the tie breaker, Fountain noted: "To be honest, the crowd being against us. Every time she screamed something out, we just pushed harder." But Fountain admitted that after getting ousted when they lost three match points in the first round last year, they were determined that they didn't lose focus again. "Luckily we took it in the tie breaker because usually when you lose the second set, you lose the third," she said. "But it worked out in our favour that it was a short set." As for playing against Pratt, Fountain admitted that she played well, but she and Foster didn't have the same experience. "We've played together for over ten years. We know each other inside out," Fountain said. "She knows when to push me and we just stayed focused." Russell noted that after going to a tie breaker in the first, they were wanted to close out the match as quickly as they could in the second. They opened a 5-1 lead, but they went into a slump as Pratt and Foster rallied back to force another tie breaker. "I started to fall down and she started to pick me up because I started to get tight," she said. "Then afterwards, I see her falling off, so I told her 'Nikkita let's go, we can't go through this again this year because we were only one point off', so we picked it up 150 percent and we pulled it off." Russell noted that fatigue started to settle in, but they were able to pull it off, especially considering that they were faced against one of the rising young stars in Pratt. "I think we did an exceptional job playing in this big international event, especially in the main draw," Russell said. "She's a tough player and I just to congratulate her and I hope that she will do very well in the future." Russell, one of the future stars for the Bahamas, almost single-handedly had to keep her team in the match. But there were times when Foster stepped up at the net and ensured that they kept the pressure on Fountain and Russell. "We went out there and we played our best. They played great," Pratt said. "We just did our best." Foster, teaming up with Pratt for the first time, said they could have played a lot better, but they were pleased with how they performed. "I think we worked very well together and we picked up our energy," Foster said. Pratt said they worked very well together and if the opportunity presents itself, they both would team up to play together again. Fountain and Russell will now have to prepare for the second round match against the top seeded team of Natalie Grandin from Russia and Vladimira Uhlirova from the Czech Republic tonight. "We have no expectations. We are the underdogs," Fountain said. "We just have to fight as hard as we can and go down fighting." Grandin and Uhlirova won their first round match yesterday with a 6-2, 7-6 (4) decision over the Czexh Republic team of sisters Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova. In other matches, the team of Russia's Nina Bratchikova and Croatia's Darija Jurak upset the No.2 seeds Rita Fujiwara from Japan and Klaudia Jans Ignacik from Poland 6-3, 6-3. The No.3 seeds Kristina Barrois and Jasmin Woehr from Germany also were sent packing 6-4, 6-4 by the team of Eva Birnerova from the Czech Republic and Anne Keothavong from Great Britain. No.4 seeds Jill Craybas from the United States and Anastasia Rodionova from Australia stayed alive with a 3-6, 6-3 (10-8) win over Americans Maria Sanchez and Yasmin Schnack; Janette Husarova and Katalin Marosi def. Olga Savchuk and Valeria Savinykh 6-1, 7-6 (7); Mandy Minella and Urszula Radwanska def. Sharon Fichman and Marie-Eve Pelletier 6-4, 6-4 and Lindsay Lee-Waters and Megan Moulton-Levy def. Alize Cornet and Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 6-3. In singles play to complete the first round, No.8 seed Mandy Minella def. Sesil Karatantcheva 6-2, 6-0; Karolina Pliskova def. Allison Riske 7-5, 6-2; Bojana Jovanovski def. M. Duque-Marino 7-6 (9), 6-7 (7), 6-3; Rika Fujiwara def. Valeria Savinykh 6-1, 6-3 and Gail Brodsky def. CoCo Vandeweghe 1-6, 6-4, 6-3. The tournament continued today at 10 a.m.