Tribler and Maatta take title again

Their tennis games are all guile and grace, but over the last two years Mikael Maatta and Jan Tribler have also learned how to pound every opponent into submission.

They successfully defended their Blue Moon Men’s Night Doubles championship Saturday, taking apart second-seeded Minh Le and Wei Yu Su 6-3, 6-1.

In 1 hour, Maatta and Tribler sliced, diced and hit a ridiculous number of lob returns into the windy night at Kailua Racquet Club. They also ripped a series of shots at Su’s feet, forcing the 6-foot-3 father of a 14-month-old child to dig a bit too deep.

The win was a complete reversal of 2006, ’07 and ’08, when Su and Le beat the former Hawaii Pacific All-Americans in three straight finals.

The former Brigham Young-Hawaii All-American and Le, a former Cal player from Vietnam, won the first 14 matches they played at KRC. They remain only the second team to three-peat in the 42-year-old Night Doubles tournament, after Kendall Char and the late Peter Isaak.

Maatta and Tribler, who lost five Night Doubles finals before breaking through last year, can make it three next year on the biggest stage in Hawaii tennis.

"We are better than we were in 2008," said Tribler, who came to HPU from Denmark a decade ago. "But not better than when we first came over. No way."

Hard to tell. They got in a zone last night and Le and Su could not get them out in a showdown of 30-somethings. Their best chance came on Tribler’s second service game in the first set. Down 2-4, they had three break points.

Tribler erased them with three huge serves, smacked a winning volley to end one of the many long rallies, then blasted one more monstrous serve.

"That was huge," Tribler said. "That would have been a momentum shift. If we lose that one they get confident and you never know what’s going to happen."

Tribler looked at Maatta and grinned.

"He might get super nervous and start missing," Tribler said, winking.

That never happened. Su and Le had no answers.

"We had a couple of chances (to break) and we never converted," said Le, who played on the pro circuit in Japan after college and now runs a software business in Vietnam. "If we had converted on those, the flow would have come but because they were always playing with a lead they were pretty comfortable."

Maatta and Tribler came out comfortable, volleying more aggressively than in the past. They won 12 of the first 16 points to get that early lead before about 600 spectators.

In the second set they rolled, their confidence growing as they blew to a 5-1 lead. In the final game, Le double-faulted four times, but he and Su also fought off seven match points.

Finally, Maatta hit one last sweet, slashing volley.

"We got more relaxed," the Swede said. "Got the momentum a little bit."

The momentum has lasted two years now, it seems.

Maatta and Tribler’s win made them the Mann Mortgage Triple Crown of Tennis men’s doubles series champions a second straight year. They have won five of the six series events ever played, the only glitch coming in June when Tribler was out of town.

Saturday’s win earned them a wild card into January’s $50,000 Honolulu Challenger and a $500 bonus on top of their $3,000 first-prize check.

If they had lost, Su, Ikaika Jobe and Hendrik Bode would have been tied for second behind Maatta, with the tie broken by a cut of the cards.

Jobe and Bode claimed third place at Night Doubles earlier Saturday, defeating Bradlee Lum-Tucker and Michael Wojnarowicz, 8-5.

Stephen Royalty was named the Peter Isaak Sportsmanship Award winner and Brandon Lee earned the Sam Caldwell Amateur Award.