SI Advance - 08/10/2009

Menezes, Perpetua capture Staten Island Mixed Doubles title

By Bernie Augustine - August 10, 2009, 9:49AM

Alicia Menezes returns a shot as her doubles partner, Ed Perpetua, watches during the final of Sunday's Staten Island Mixed Doubles tournament. (Hilton Flores/Staten Island Advance)

Alicia Menezes announced the news yesterday after she and partner Ed Perpetua won a ninth straight Staten Island Mixed Doubles Tennis Tournament title -- she's returning.

"I get some time off during the summer and school starts in the beginning of August. If this tournament can be played on weekends, I don't see why I can't continue to play," said Menezes, who just began medical school this month in New Jersey.

Not exactly good news for the rest of the field, which was hoping this would be Menezes' last stand and Perpetua would be looking for his sixth different partner in search of his 22nd Mixed crown.

So, Menezes put all the rumors to rest much like she and Perpetua put away Konstantin Trofimovich and Carissa Sommerlad, 6-2, 6-3, in a well-executed final on the clay of the Richmond County CC in Dongan Hills.

"We did the right things and the little things," offered Perpetua, who became a brand-new dad during this tournament. "We put the pressure on them. With me (accurately) serving, it enabled Alicia to close on net and we held quite easily."

For the first four games of each set, the crowd was treated to high-intensity, high-level play from both sides of the net. Of the 64 points in the opening set, 38 of them and seven of eight deuces came during the 2-2 standoff.

But following Perpetua's fifth-game hold, the defending champs broke Trofimovich in a deuce sixth and finished off the five-game streak with a break of Sommerlad.

The second set followed the same format until the two seeds managed a return break of Menezes in a poor-serving seventh. On serve at 4-3, Perpetua and Menezes needed just one break point to put down Sommerlad and were on top of their aggressive game in closing out yet another championship on Perpetua's fifth hold of service.

NOTES: Trofimovich and Sommerlad rejected the first five break points ... After Perpetua held in a love fifth, the top seeds used just 20 points over the final four games of the 51-point second set ... Before Perpetua and Menezes left for the match, both sat with Ed's newborn daughter Yuriko and told her, "We're going to win this match for you" ... Next on tap is Saturday's Parent-Child tourney at the SI Community Tennis Center.