Tennis: Winners lost in the city - favourites lost on court

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Trivia question. Which member of the Longwood Cricket Club is the latest to make it on to the world stage?

Easy. Teryn Ashley. But don't go searching the lists of the teams for cricket's World Cup for clues.

Rather, look among the winners at the ASB Classic where Ashley and Abigail Spears upset the rankings with their 6-2 2-6 6-0 win over hot favourites and top seeds Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva in a wham-bam doubles final on Saturday.

Ashley and Spears?

With a doubles ranking of 195 - compared with their opponents' 19 - the young Americans were the lowest-ranked players (outside the two wildcard combinations) at the ASB Tennis Centre.

With singles rankings not good enough to get them a mention in the WTA guide they, surely, had no chance.

But matches are won on court not in record books. With two service breaks, Ashley/Spears raced through the first set in 30 minutes. The top seeds needed a minute less to take the second - again two breaks - the third an anticlimax.

Ashley held, Likhovtseva broken, Spears held, Black broken, Ashley held, Likhovtseva broken - game, set (in just 17 minutes) and match.

"This was No 1 for us," said Teryn - or as her mother had decreed, Katherine - Ashley. "It was a big thrill. We had played some good matches to get to the final. In a couple of other tournaments we have lost to teams who went on to win."

For 24-year-old Ashley it was her first journey to this part of the world. Twenty-one-year-old Spears was here a year ago, losing in the second round of singles.

She and Kim Grant then went on to cause one of the biggest upsets of the Australian Open, winning in the first round.

Beating who? Second seeds Black and Likhovtseva no less.

The young pair, who celebrated Christmas in Auckland in an unusual way - they got lost and had an unintentional tour of the city, needing buses and ferries to get home - certainly enjoyed themselves.

Jolted when they lost the second set, they called for a "bathroom break", returned and finished it in a flash.

No one was prouder of Ashley's victory than veteran tennis commentator Bud Collins, who is a member too of the Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

"They will enjoy that back home," said Collins. "The club has a long history.

"The first US Championship was won by Dick Sears in 1881. He was a member of the club.

"It is also the club where the Davis Cup started."

Ashley and Spears may know little of the tradition but they did create their own piece of history by adding their name to a trophy boasting some of the big names in the women's game.