Literally everyone. Because EVERYONE went home with a trophy!
WHOA! What a day in 3.0 tennis history as a whopping three members of the 3.0 tennis world descended upon the second ever Wooster Aspen Championships (or WAC, for those in the know ... which now includes YOU!). When all was said and done, WAC history would be made (which wasn't really that hard to accomplish seeing as there have only been two WAC's in, well, in all of 3.0 history), as not one, not two, but three new champions were crowned! How, you ask? How can one tournament possibly have three trophy holders at the end of a competition? Was this even a tournament? Or was it a participation project? In short ... YES! Read on to find out all the answers to every one of your innermost questions ... as long as those innermost questions involve 3.0 tennis that took place in Wooster, Ohio ... where anything is possible!
Doubles Results
There weren't any! The number one threat to all 3.0 tennis everywhere - disinterest - once again took its toll.
Singles Results
As there were but three 3.0 entrants (read about them here ... if you dare!), the 2020 WAC Champion would be decided per the most historic and most noble method possible (when hardly anyone shows up) - the Round Robin!
Round Robin #1
In the opening 3.0 match of the 3.0 tourney, tournament tested 3.0 veteran Travis took on NorCal newbie Jeffrey in a match of contrasting styles. Travis, a veteran of the 3.0 courts was playing in his 97th career 3.0 match (which ... probably isn't anything to brag about), showing he had vast experience on his side whereas the raw Jeffrey was playing in only his second official match ... ever. Moreover, Travis brought his attacking serve and volley game (as well as his childishly soft forehand and serve) against the hardest serve in the entire - entire! - bracket. Additionally, Travis' defensive "keep the ball in the court because I'm a pusher and I hope that you make a mistake before I do" strategy would match up against Jeffrey's aggressive "I want to end this point as quickly as possible before I make a mistake" strategy. Finally, the rogue selfish lone wolf that was Travis was chasing self-defining singles glory, trying to become the first 3.0 player since the great Atahan Koymen in 2010 to win three 3.0 tournaments in a single calendar year and the first 3.0 player to defend a 3.0 Championship since the great Adrian Fatu defended the Geiger's Open back in '06 and '07 (and yes, we know that's a lot of seemingly random statistical information, but we here at DFO pride ourselves on boring our readers with as much mundane 3.0 tennis information as humanly possible). Meanwhile, unlike the solo Tom Cruise-like Maverick that was his opponent Travis, Jeffrey was instead part of a whole unit, a dojo if you will, and like Daniel to a Mr. Miyagi in the famous tennis documentary Karate Kid, he was in tune, both
spiritually and emotionally with his own tennis sensei, the great NorCal 3.0 tennis legend known simply as "The Ted." The Ted, as he's known, had schooled Jeffrey in the ways of 3.0 tennis, and as such, Jeffrey adhered and followed The Ted's teachings religiously. As such, where Travis walked the 78' of hard court alone, Jeffrey was instead, with his tennis guru, nary alone as The Ted's teachings coursed through his very tennis veins!
Oh, and both Travis and Jeffrey wore matching t-shirts that garnered stares and looks of respect and admiration from the assembled masses (or just stares and looks). THE DRAMA!
(Action* photos of the Travis v. Jeffrey match without any action actually involving an actual tennis ball!)
As this tennis Civil War began, or Brüder versus Brüder as tennis Germans might say (as opposed to regular Germans), Brüder Travis jumped out to the early 3-0 lead as his backhand and net play gave him the early advantage in the opening WAC match. Meanwhile, 78' away, Jeffrey attempted to work into the WAC, no doubt nervous to be in his first ever O-H-I-O 3.0 tournament against one of the self-proclaimed greatest 3.0 players to ever endlessly self-proclaim about his low level rec-league greatness*. But work his way into the match Brüder Jeffrey did, and as the match progressed, his nerves settled, finally realizing that his opponent had the tennis skill equivalent to that of a human shrug. Thus, refocused, in the fourth game, on his powerful NorCal serve, the first time WAC stroker made Sensei Ted proud, winning his first ever career 3.0 game! Stop the presses!
Literally!
After taking a moment to take in the career 3.0 milestone, Jeffrey, went on to play inspired, and used his crushing serves and his equally crushing forehands to, just like a Californian earthquake, shift the momentum! And much like the tall NorCal redwoods swing and shake after one of the many NorCal earthquakes, the match, too, went back and forth, as Travis struggled to handle the new found 3.0 confidence of his opponent. Indeed, so confident was Jeffrey that he soon broke his opponent and had a chance to even up the match at 5-5! WHOA! THE TED HAD TO BE PROUD!
Travis, on his heels, knew what he had to do to destroy Jeffrey's 3.0 dreams, and he quietly reminded the newbie of how new he really was, planting seeds of doubt much like this nation's founding tennis player, Johnny Appleseed, planted seeds of apples, and, in the end, the tournament tested veteran's gamesmanship, combined with his annoying consistency, proved to be the difference, and despite the West Coast scare, he held on to save the game to take a first set lead. But Jeffrey, smelling O-H-I-O tennis blood (or his own blood, for he had started to bleed profusely from not just one BUT TWO ANKLES!), came out in the second set like a proverbial Paul Bunyan, working to chop
down Travis' weak apple tree-ish forehands with mighty forehands of his own! But after several back and forth games, Travis' veteran experience, both on the tour* and on the WAC courts, proved to be too much of an advantage for his Left Coast neighbor to overcome, and as a result the defending WAC Champion took the second set, and with it, the opening Round Robin match of the tournament (though, to be fair, the biggest advantage Travis probably enjoyed was that it turned out that Jeff was nauseous, which surely had nothing* to do with the fact Travis was in charge of driving from Cleveland to Wooster and took the most curvy and most rough roads possible for the better part of their hour long journey).
But what a match! Travis, after a rocky start, opened up his WAC defense with a hard-fought yet deserved victory against the upstart 3.0 young'un from the other side of the nation and putting himself in prime position to defend his '19 WAC Championship! Jeffrey, meanwhile, enjoyed his best ever tournament finish in his first tournament match since 2017 and in only his second tournament match ever, and not only made his tennis idol proud, but was also in the running for a best ever top three finish! WHOA!
Round Robin #2
The second match of the WAC Round Robin would be another clash of contrasts, although, as it turned out, Jeffrey and Benjamin shared more similarities than, upon first glance, one would assume. Indeed, the assembled crowd (and there actually was a socially distance approved crowd ... or a group ... or, well, ok ... but there was more than one person at least, and sometimes they even watched the matches!) witnessed two players with two big serves, two strong forehands, and two ... extreme levels of fatigue. For, as it turned out, both 3.0 tennis warriors had just wrapped up their earlier matches just minutes earlier. Thus, Jeffrey, the relatively raw 3.0 rookie, fresh off his best tournament performance ever, would face off against one of the more storied 3.0 players around, Benjamin, who had just wrapped up not one but two matches at the near professional 3.5 level! WHOA! Big serves ... big forehands ... big tiresome breaks at the changeover! This match would have it all!
(If you look at the above photos in just the right way, it looks almost - almost - like tennis!)
As such, with energy levels teetering near empty, both players came into the match looking to end points quickly, Benjamin with his trademark forehand and Jeffrey with his top-3.0-notch serve. And boy howdy (as tennis fans are known to say), both players played to their strengths, and with the match even at 1-1, the fans (plural, because there were more than one ... why won't you believe us?!) were in for a 3.0 sized treat! Back and forth these two seemingly mirror images of one another went, as game after game went to deuce as both players went for big forehands and big serves! The raw rookie from the other side of the Rockies pushed the veteran moxy of the O-H-I-O native, but when a serve was needed, or when a shot was necessary, it was the Buckeye born and raised Benjamin who came up with the big point time and time again, eventually taking the first set.
Thus, with but one potential set to go in his WAC experience, Jeffrey realized he had to shift his game plan if he were to hang with the vast experience of Benjamin, and as such, the NorCal tennis native went with the unconventional approach of ... changing racquets! WHOA! Shockingly changing his racquet after breaking the strings on his current racquet (after an ace, mind you), Jeffrey decided to go with the unorthodox approach of changing to an unbroken racquet (although, to be fair, Jeffrey did play with the broken racquet at least one more time, and actually won the point on a volley, meaning the broken racquet was a perfect 2-0 ... so why did he change?!).
The questionable racquet change immediately lead to a huge momentum shift, but only in the opposite direction Jeffrey intended, for while he enjoyed more control with a racquet that actually had strings, he unfortunately lost the advantageous pop that had been his calling card with his previous racquet, and as such, Benjamin was able to take the offensive and run out to a quick 3-0 lead in the second set. However, as the set progressed, the power-hitting newbie from another time zone was eventually able to navigate his new string-filled racquet to get back in the match at 4-2, which each game progressively longer, closer, and more tiresome than the next. At this point, Jeffrey installed a final go-for-broke strategy change, playing all-out blitzkrieg tennis, rushing the net at each and every opportunity to put Benjamin, the veteran 3.0 baseliner, under constant pressure. The aggressive change immediately got Jeffrey back in the match, as Jeffrey had chances to even up the match with his aggressive and offensive (mostly offensive) play! But Benjamin's veteran moxy could not be denied as he was able to weather the tennis storm that was his opponents aggressive play and hold on to take the set and thus the match.
BUT WHAT A MATCH! Jeffrey's tournament run had come to an end, but not before he earned the respect of not just the crowd (plural!) but also of the ENTIRE 3.0 BRACKET after it was revealed that the Pacific Time Zone'r had been playing ... INJURED! That's right, just like a lesser known athlete of yore in a much lesser known sport called "baseball", Jeffrey also had to endure a lateral medial malleolus (i.e., a scratch on his ankle)! But unlike Curt Schilling (the lesser known athlete, by the way), Jeffrey had to endure a bilateral medial malleolus! WHOA! Twice the pain! Twice the legend! Twice the poor shoe quality! No wonder, as Jeffrey limped off the court to the applause of a fan, everyone could tell that it was just a matter of time before this warrior of the hard courts would become make his mark on the 3.0 tennis tour* ... especially if he didn't take three years off between matches.
As for Benjamin, as he entered his second championship final in as many tournaments, the North Canton Racquet Club captain had shown not only that his back court game was as strong as ever but that he was the marathon man of 3.0 tennis, for he was about to play his fourth straight match of the day!
Round Robin #3
For the second 3.0 tournament in a row, these two titans of the 3.0 courts faced off in the championship match, and for the second time in a row, fatigue would play a deciding factor in who would walk - or limp - away with the WAC trophy (spoiler alert ... everyone limped away with a trophy!). Only three weeks earlier, these two, with over 100 shared matches between them at the near lowest-level of tennis possible, had faced off on the championship courts of the Green Open Championships (which you can read about ... HERE!) in a tennis battle of attrition as both fought (and lost to) the heat and the fatigue in what was a display that some observers claim slightly resembled tennis.
(Action WAC photos of the Travis v. Benjamin WAC Championship match. And some of these action photos were of the actual event! That's DFO editing for you!)
Now three weeks later, on the championship courts of the WAC, Benjamin once again faced a familiar opponent, and it wasn't the outlandishly dressed fellow 78' feet away from him. No, instead, it was fatigue! Benjamin, already three matches in, was no doubt exhausted, although, to be fair, Travis may have also been sorta exhausted from changing his outfit for the third time (which is kind of his thing).
Not surprisingly, both players approached this championship foray differently, as Travis tried to speed up the match whenever possible whereas Benjamin tried to slow it down to conserve energy. And where Travis tried to serve and volley and chip and charge and do anything he could to move his surely-exhausted opponent around, Benjamin instead went for big forehands, hoping to get his opponent, and himself, off the court as quickly and efficiently as possible to. Travis though, as most know, is anything but efficient, and did everything he could to keep the overall quality of tennis as low as possible, and thanks to said low levels of tennis, combined with his low levels of efficiency, Travis jumped out to a quick first set lead. Benjamin, though, no stranger to championship courts and playing Travis for the third time in 2020, was no stranger to his opponent's gamesmanship, and thus rallied back, and midway through the match showed the mental and physical fortitude that has made him one of the best players on the 3.0 tour* as his trademark forehand not only got him back in the match, but inspired the fans (plural!!!) as well. In the end, however, despite a valiant attempt from the depleted Benjamin, Travis' ability to keep the match going at the lowest level possible proved the difference, and as the set and the match came to it's conclusion, the two tennis combatants could only tip their proverbial tennis hats to one another as Travis once again lucked out in what has become their usual tennis war of attrition.
BUT WAIT, everyone was a winner! That's right! In a 3.0 first, the WAC presented not one, not two, but three trophies! Travis, as the WAC Champion, received a championship trophy ... Benjamin, as the WAC Vice-Champion, received a finalist trophy ... and Jeffrey, as the Round Robin third place finisher, received an FMC trophy! WHOA! So many trophies! So many winners!! So many questions on what FMC stands for!!! First Male Completed? First Man Concluded? First Managed to Completion? Fatal Malleolus Contusion? Who knows?! Whatever the answer is, the facts are clear, everyone won at the WAC!
Where Are They Now?
Under the "where are they now" category, it's easy to find these former stars of the 3.0 stage .... they're on the championship courts of the WAC! Congratulations to '19 GOC 3.0 Finalist Abhishek for making this year's WAC 3.5 finals and mucho congratulations to last year's Akron Open 3.0 Champion Joshua on winning this year's WAC 3.5 Consolation Title! And special congratulations to current Akron Open 3.0 Champion and now three-time 3.5 champion (AO, GOC, WAC) and part-time DFO photographer, H.Michael! Way to make the 3.0 world proud, gentlemen!
Updated WAC Stats!
Updated WAC stats! HERE FOR YOU!
Dedications!
Best article yet!!!
Maybe one of the best pieces written on DOF to-date. In-depth, in-your-face (probably too close for comfort) reporting only to be found here, sprinkled with little known tennis history. Only in the personal diary of Johnny Appleseed and on the Paul Bunyan-carved trunks of the Redwood forests can one find and understand tennis' origins; for DFO to go to those lengths = professional (or maybe just too much time trapped inside carbon monoxide-filled garages). Either way, The Ted would be proud.