IW: Team Cuteness reign supreme!
Photo by ROBYN BECK/ AFP/ Getty Images
Shortly after falling to Federer in the singles final, Isner was back out with his doubles partner Querrey to play Rafa and Marc! in the doubles final. The first set was all Team Cuteness with Querrey being the weakest link on the court. Querrey sorted things out a bit, and they managed to break Rafa’s serve in the second set, but Team Cuteness came back, forced a tiebreak and took it. They win the doubles title: 6-2, 7-6(3).
Stats:
| Nadal | J Isner/S Querrey | |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics on Serve | ||
| Aces | 0 | 2 |
| Double Faults | 0 | 2 |
| 1st Serve % | 77% | 70% |
| 1st Serve Points Won | 30/43 (70%) | 27/39 (69%) |
| 2nd Serve Points Won | 11/13 (85%) | 4/17 (24%) |
| Break Points Saved | 1/2 (50%) | 2/5 (40%) |
| Service Games Played | 10 | 10 |
| Statistics on Return | ||
| 1st Return Points Won | 12/39 (31%) | 13/43 (30%) |
| Second Return Points Won | 13/17 (76%) | 2/13 (15%) |
| Break Points Won | 3/5 (60%) | 1/2 (50%) |
| Return Games Played | 10 | 10 |
| Statistics on Points | ||
| Total Service Points Won | 41/56 (73%) | 31/56 (55%) |
| Total Return Points Won | 25/56 (45%) | 15/56 (27%) |
| Total Points Won | 66/112 (59%) | 46/112 (41%) |
As it happened blatherings:
Carlos Bernardes in the chair. Quisner win the toss and will serve.
Isner serving to start. 15-0. Nice forehand winner from Rafa – from Marc!’s side of the court: 15-15. Ace: 30-15. Rafa can’t quite get to a volley: 40-15. Double fault: 40-30. Marc! nets a forehand and Quisner holds: 1-0.
Marc! almost in the center of the court while Rafa serves. 15-0. Wind blowing things onto the court. Marc! wins a volley war at the net: 30-0. Announcers praising Marc! to no end. Love it. Marc! couldn’t get to a volley in time: 30-15. Marc! reacts well to a net-cord: 40-15. Nice hold: 1-1.
Beautiful forehand passing shot winner by Marc!: 0-15. Quisner picking on Marc! and he’s making them pay 0-30. Marc! drops a ball barely over the net: triple break point. AMAZING point with the players all over the place and they break! 2-1
This is so much fun – too much going on for play-by-play! Isner smashes a winner: 30-15. They hold.
Marc! sends a ball long: 30-0. Again: 40-15. Quisner hold for 2-3.
Marc! took Rafa’s ball and smashes a winner: 15-0. Marc! poaches early, but Querrey nets the pass: 30-0. Rafa smash: 40-0. They hold.
Querrey serving now. He nets a ball: 0-15. Isner runs down a perfect lob from Marc!, but barely gets to it and his reply is out: 0-30. Querrey double faults to 0-40. Querrey broken again. Marc!/Rafa up 5-2 and can serve for the set next.
Heee! Marc! pouring water on his thighs. Rafa looking at him like he’s insane.
Isner hits a return right at Rafa who can’t handle the volley: 0-15. Rafa smashes an overhead winner: 15-15. Querrey nets a ball: 40-15. Right down the middle to take the first set: 6-2.
Joint potty break for Team Cuteness?
0-15. Second serve winner: 15-15. Rafa sends a serve return well out of court: 30-15. Ace: 40-15. Isner serving clinic and he holds for the team to start set 2.
Marc! misses a shot: 0-15. Isner dumps a volley into the net: 15-15. Man the windy is blowing something fierce – knocked over Rafa’s water bottles. Stuff blowing all over and onto the court – Rafa can’t serve. Rafa handcuffs Isner with a serve: 30-15. Querrey mishits a ball: 40-15. Isner smashes and overhead winner: 40-30. Crap – it’s raining. Players sitting down. Over walkie talkie, hear them say rain is supposed to be an hour away. If they can get through this light sprinkle, they can finish if quickly. Players back out on court. Second serve. They hold when Querrey nets a ball.
Nice little dropper from Marc! 0-15. Rafa poaches and volleys right at Isner’s feet: 0-30. I mean, right at. Sloppy volley way out from Isner: 0-40. Querrey is broken again (at love this time). Team Cuteness go up 2-1.
Marc! sends a ball out: 0-15. My stream is going potty. 15-15. Nice return from Isner draws an error from Marc! 15-30. Querrey gets a second serve, but his return hits the netcord and pops out: 30-30. Beautiful touch volley from Rafa: 40-30. Team Cuteness hold for 3-1.
Nice serve from Isner: 15-0. Again – Marc! hopping after missing the return: 30-0. Nice drop volley from Querrey: 40-0. My stream dies: 40-15. Rafa’s return is out and Quisner holds for 2-3.
MOM, I told you I’d call back later. Stop calling me! I don’t need anything from the grocery store!
Rafa serving – second serve. Nice overhead from Isner and Rafa’s defensive reply is out: 0-15. Isner passes Marc! 0-30. Marc! can’t handle Querrey’s passing shot: 0-40. Nice hands at the net, Marc! 15-40. Rafa misses and his serve is broken: 3-3.
Querrey serving. Beautiful touch from Isner: 30-0. Good serve, bad return: 40-0. Isner poaches and Marc! passes down the line: 40-15. Marc!’s volley goes into the net and Querrey holds for 4-3.
Marc! hits a lot of volleys, but not that last one: 0-15. Second serve, but Querrey’s return is out: 15-15. Querrey’s shot is out: 30-15. Marc! serves into the wrong service box. Rafa hits a winning volley between Quisner: 40-15. Rafa shows off at the net: 4-4.
Nice semi-smash at net from Querrey: 30-0. Rafa sends a ball long: 40-0. Marc! tees off on a second serve return: 40-15. Isner’s shot pops out thanks to the netcord: 40-30. Rafa anticipates a drop shot and gets a ball low to Isner: 40-40. Second serve. Deciding point and Isner serves a great second serve to hold for 5-4.
Rafa took another potty break? Commentator saying you are only allowed one potty break in a 2 out of 3 match.
Serve return goes into the net: 15-0. That one goes well out: 30-0. Second serve. Marc! totally saves that point at net! 40-0. Excellent volley from Marc! 5-5.
Kate Walsh taking pictures with her iPhone like a good fan-girl.
15-0. Rafa storms the net: 15-15. Nice volley from Querrey: 30-15. Lobs…smashes…lobs…smashes…forehand winner…oh my!!! This is so much fun. 40-15. Quisner holds for 6-5.
Marc! serving to force a tiebreak. Nice down the line winner from Querrey: 0-15. Go, Rafa! 15-15.
Nice serve from Marc! 30-15. Rafa smash at net: 40-15. Second serve. Rafa poaches and knocks off a winning volley: 6-6. Tiebreak.
Isner serves first. Rafa’s return is out: 0-1. Rafa serving – second serve. Querrey’s shot is out: 1-1. 2-1, on serve. Querrey to 2. Querrey’s forehand is long – mini-break to Team Cuteness. Rafa’s forehand is well out: 3-2. Querrey’s forehand goes into the net: 4-2. Rafa’s volley goes into the net – back on serve: 4-3. Second serve for Isner. Marc! hits right at Querrey to get a mini-break back: 5-3. Marc! again! 6-3. Rafa serving. They win!!!
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At last the title drought has been broken!
Well done TeamCuteness on your brilliant performance this tourney.
Can’t wait to see trophy biting pics.
They were awesome, got to see the second set. Loved seeing both of them bite the trophy simultaneously! Too cute!
so happy they won. Hopefully will boost Rafa’s confidence too :)
Joy! Happiness! Bliss!
Loved seeing happy,smiling Rafa and Marc! They played so well and looked like they were having a ball out there. Seeing Rafa bite a trophy was a welcome sight and it was so cute that Marc started biting it too. It looked so cold there by the way the fans were all covered up. Rafa will be happy to get to Miami and lots of sunshine.
Can’t wait!
Ha ha they were biting it very carefully. I wish their other matches were at least streamed. Especially the one with Team Bun. It’s such a shame that the media has really no understanding of good tennis.
Team Cuteness was so great to see, they both played wonderful & deserved to win the trophy, Loved the trophy biting, hopefully will carry over to Miami… Looked great in the pics:)
Vamos Rafa & to the Spanish Armada!!!
Would it be history if Rafa, instead of Fed, is also in the singles final vs Isner and the vie again for the doubles? Too bad my prayer was not specific enough when I prayed Rafa to win IW. Should have specifically mentioned singles and doubles! Still, very thankful for the win for team cuteness!!! Vamos!
hope it’s repeat of year 2010 all over again for rafa! – when they won the indian wells doubles title too!
WTG Team Cuteness!! They were awesome today. Love seeing Marc! pop up like a jack in the box and put the ball away.
A pity Rafa wasn’t in the singles final today. When’s the last time the singles finalists were also the doubles finalists?
Yea! Yea! Yea! That was so much fun to watch. Good for Rafa. And having a good friend to share it with makes it better!! Vamos Rafa in Miami.
So happy for Rafa after all the unsettling press and weather and cold and…..
Did anyone noticed he had two bathroom breaks this time?! (you remember in the semis, he had an odd moment one too!) And Carlos the umpire should have penalised him. You only allowed one in the match. Oh well but that worries me. Has he got a touch of the runs….. maybe the bug that is hitting the players and of course Fed was so vocal about including himself?
I don’t know how lucky any of you were to watch the match without subscribing. In England I looked everywhere on the livestreaming and couldn’t come up with anythiing. I went to rafaholics website and on some tiny screen it was being broadcast but I couldn’t get the tv in questin myself. Saw the biting of the trophy whooppeeeeeeeeeeee. Biting a trophy again must feel fabbbbbbb x
The commies said that the umpire gave Rafa permish for the 2nd “comfort” break. He took it during a changeover and made quick work of it so no time was lost.
You guys really need to be on twitter during matches. Even if you don’t sign up for twitter, you can go to someone’s account and see their tweets. I retweeted a link to the stream that @pirateswoop found.
thanks Miri i will do that in future. i found the link to late and only saw the last few games. It looked a great match, so was gutted i missed majority of it.
thanks for that tip, Miri. will definitely do for Miami.
Happy for Rafa and Marc! They are great and unarguably the cutest doubles players ever. ;)
So tomorrow onwards will be the time for Rafa to concentrate solely on singles for his next tourney. Hopefully, we’ll get to see him smile all the way in Miami.
Whoever termed mafa as Team Cuteness (miri?) is spot on. They are absolutely adorable and as cute as a box of puppies, with the most beautiful smiles and radiating affection. Feel privileged to have seen that match, as I love stress free tennis. Also Rafa takes lots less time to prep for his serve in doubles. Love is all around.
I’ve noticed either that Rafa went to the bathroom yesterday and today. For me, he was really weird yesterday, not moving well, don’t using his forehand like he’s usually does. I don’t know.
Maybe he got that virus. Last year he got virus at Doha and Roma. And still played.
This was an awesome last match to see. Marc! was awesome in the first set when every other ball was directed to him. And then towards the latter half of the second set, Rafa started poaching a lot more. Some really fun rallies and all four looked like they were having fun. A really nice end to a trying weekend for me.
Happy for the win!!! :)))
I only got to see the winning point (about 15 seconds of it)as the TennisTV app keeps crashing on my iphone. By the time I got the app to start up, they stopped showing any streams and i didn’t get to see the trophy presentation. But am on twitter and its nice to see the totally adorable photos of Team Cuteness!
Hope this year will turn out to be like 2010…win the doubles of Indian Wells and most of that which follows. Its an even year afterall! Vamos Rafa!
For those in the US who have access to it, The Tennis Channel will show the final tonight at 10pm Eastern time.
What a great match. Rafa and Marc are a good team, working well together. Nice they won IW for the second time. Marc had an exceptionally good match – the doubles specialist. Fun for them.
Great win and pics. Marc! is really good at doubles, makes a great friend/ partner for Rafa and helped Spain in davis cup as part of the “b” team where he played really well and aggressive as a tiger. If only the UK had a “b” team that good or any team at all! Our team is Murray and some others most people have never heard of. They seem to have a secret factory in Spain where they turn out great sportsmen by the dozen.
By the way if Rafa or anyone “has the runs” I would prefer for the umpire to let them visit the bathroom!
Arghh..i missed the doubles..Malaysian cable tv was not showing it..and it was too late for me to find any Streaming links..sob sob..On to MIAMI next1 VAMOS!!
Great news to wake up to! Just finished watching raficionada’s “Joint Trophy Biting” vid. Marc! hopping around Rafa and making efforts to keep in touch with that trophy and Rafa snatching it from Marc!’s hands every time. :))))) Congrats to the guys!
I too was disappointed not to be able to see the match, can’t understand why they do not show the doubles finals, so glad they won, nice confidence booster going into Miami for Rafa.
This was the happy ending we needed! I was smiling all the way through and I still am smiling at the memory of this final. I don’t think I had so much fun watching a Rafa match in a while. And I LOVED how great Marc! was playing!
More of them, please (and on the top of my wish-list: watching Rafa & Marc! play a doubles match live…)
:D
Thanks for the Tennis Channel info. I watched on Tennis TV but will tape it tonight!
Finally, Rafa doing some trophy biting! Not the singles one yet but hopefully it will come.