My original onsite fanclub report from www.sports-india.com:
Samantha had a great start in that game with hitting three great returns on Mirnyis serve (in general, she had definitely less trouble with Mirnyi's serve hammers than Leander had). Nevertheless, she and Leander could not
take profit out of that. Fortunately, they did not have problems at own serve anyway. Though they seemed slightly better in first set to me, no break opportunity happend until the seventh game, when Valentina struggled with her serve and was 15:40 behind. While
Mirnyi and she were able to save the first break point out of a crucial second serve situation, they granted the break by a double fault on the second one. After Samantha had no problem to win her serve, a great return shot by the Australian gave our team double break point against Mirnyi's serve. Valentina was unable to
hit a very low volley and shot it in the net, which made Lee and Samantha win the first set by 6-3. Especially at the end of first set, they were just the better team, though Leander was not able to keep his great game he showed in the men's doubles. No great game for the nervous-acting umpire (as an umpire, you shall never say that you have no idea if the ball was in or not...) and disastrous linesmen, who had some
terrible calls on really slow balls - their calls will have influenced the match in some crucial situations later.
Maybe because of Samantha and Leander fantastically managed to keep Mirnyi as much off the match as possible, Max and Valentina changed court sides in second set, Valentina was on Ad court now. In the first game already, when Leander served, this seemed to be an appropriate answer: The points were 15:40, Valentina scored the break by a beautiful lob shot which was supported by the strong winds in
Flushing. Max Mirnyi had no problems at own serve afterwards when he made three aces. The third game was maybe the turning point of the match: Samantha was on the mount and did not seem to have any problems when she lead 40:15, but three incredible
return shots by Valentina Azarenka put her under huge pressure, which she and Leander could not stand and got broken again. For the rest of the match, Valentina was really incredible, maybe even better
than both male players. She was really good in singles, especially when she beat Myskina quite easily, but in this game, she played like the godmother of mixed tennis. But first of all, the second set needed to be finished - but as both teams did not have any more problems to win own serve, the second set score was 6:2 - time for the sportsmanlike-discussable super-tie break stuff.
The decider started with an incredible call from the baseline linesman. A not-even-fast shot by the Belarussian team was definitely out, but neither the linesman nor the umpire called it. Leander was complaining for a long time, maybe this point costed our team the match - as it took them several points to find back in the match. Until that point, Valentina Azarenka served, while the Belarussians already lead 6:0. Leander and Samantha did not give up and gave a great fight, but finally, they did not have a chance to come back. The final tie-break score was 10:5. By the way,
the fantastic Azarenka finished the match with style making an ace against Leander for the final point.
