A Wild Night of Doubles For Wildcards

When Lindsey Nelson and Biffy Kaufman lost their respective qualifying singles matches, they thought their time at the 2005 Acura Classic was over.

That was until tournament promoters Raquel Giscafre gave them a wildcard into the doubles main draw.

When the doubles draw was made, the wildcard team drew the team of Elena Dementieva of Russia and the talented Tatiana Golovin of France.

Earlier this year the 19-year-old Nelson, who lives in Orange County, completed her freshman year at the University of California, where she competed on the women’s tennis team. She was an All-American and reached the round of 16 at the NCAA singles championships.

The 24-year-old Kaufman is a San Diego resident. Ranked 730 in the world, she competes in USTA and ITF Circuit events. Kaufman played four years of collegiate tennis for Yale University.

Many of the fans who watched the featured night session match between Kim Clijsters of Belgium and Poland’s Marta Domachowska stayed for the doubles match and were not disappointed.

In the first game of the match, Nelson fought off a break point and held serve as the crowd cheered loudly for the Southern California players.

Later in the set, as Nelson and Kaufman led 4-3, they broke Dementieva’s serve to take a 5-3 lead. With the crowd cheering on every point, Nelson served out the set.

Was there an upset in the making? Could this wildcard team defeat the team of seasoned WTA Tour professionals? The crowd certainly thought so as shouts of “Come on Biffy!” and “Come on Lindsey!” could be heard in between points.

The drama continued to build in the second set. Kaufman and Nelson broke Dementieva early in the set and went on to build a 5-3 lead. After Golovin held serve at love to make the score 5-4, Nelson served for the match.

Dementieva and Golovin must have thought they were playing a Fed Cup match for their respective countries as the crowd would erupt into a roaring cheer after nearly every point.

Their experience of playing on the WTA Tour throughout the year began to show as Dementieva and Golovin broke serve twice in the last three games to win the set 7-5.

With the match tied at one set all, Nelson and Kaufman gave it their best shot, but fell short in the last set. After taking a 3-2 lead, they were unable to hold serve as Dementieva and Kaufman won four straight games to seal the victory.

After the match, while signing autographs at courtside, Kaufman said, “I loved it. I loved every second of it. This is the kind of atmosphere you dream of playing in.”

Kaufman added, “The crowd was amazing. They were so supportive. They made it so much more fun. It was great.”

• Dementieva and Golovin advance to the second round where they will face Russians Elena Likhovtseva and Vera Zvonareva.
• Dementieva and Golovin were playing doubles together for the first time.
• Kaufman fell to fellow American Marissa Irvin, 6-0, 6-0, in the first round of qualifying last Saturday.
• Nelson lost to Shikha Uberoi of India, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, in the first round of qualifying.
• Kaufman won the Acura Classic Opportunity Tournament in at the San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club last month.
• Nelson won the Acura Classic Opportunity Tournament at the Rancho San Clemente Tennis Club in Orange County in July. She defeated Kaufman 6-0, 6-2, in the finals.
• The match marked the first time Nelson and Kaufman played doubles together.

Click Here for more Match Summaries.