Date: Fri 06-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Lance-White-Tennis-Doubles

Full Text:

Seven Stroock Titles In A Row For White & Lance

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

Fate . . . what else could it be?

When Wendy White and Shelby Lance played their first doubles match together

some eight years ago it could only have been fate - mythical Fate, weaving the

strands of their lives into a pattern where the two threads cross - because

their connection, their union, on the tennis court has been so natural.

White and Lance have played inter-club and USTA tennis at Candlewood and

Middlebury Racquet Clubs and have been the reigning Women's Doubles champions

at the Newtown Tennis Association's annual Bertram A. Stroock Tournament for

the past seven years.

The pair first met at the Candlewood Tennis Club while Lance was still living

in Danbury, in the process of moving with her family to Newtown. They played

singles and doubles against one another and then, one day, found themselves on

the same side of the net.

White, who has played in the Stroock tournament since its inception in 1974,

won the Women's Doubles championship with Debbie Rouatt in 1989, but since

then it has been White and Lance who have held that particular part of the

annual tournament in a stranglehold.

" I just know how to choose the right partners, " White laughed.

It didn't take much time or effort, either, for the two women to mesh their

games together.

It just happened.

" We have very similar games, " said Lance. " We both have strong serves and

we both move up well to the front to take the offensive position and we both

can put the shots away. We move very well together, starting back and moving

up, and return of serve has always been very good for both of us, which sets

up the other person. "

Things have worked so well for the pair that it seems they have rarely been

challenged in the finals of the Women's Doubles. In each of the last two

years, White and Lance recorded 6-0, 6-3 wins in the title match. Last year it

was against Kathleen Joyce and Claire Willis and this year it was against

Diane Gucciardo and Joanne Klopfenstein.

" We had anticipated that this would be our toughest match, " said White, "

but it didn't quite work out that way. I don't know, we must look intimidating

or something. I don't know what it is. "

It might have something to do, though, with being tournament ready. Despite

the small draw in the Stroock Tournament, the White/Lance team would still

have to be considered the favorites even in a larger draw because the pair

play and play and play. Out of the Middlebury Racquet Club, White and Lance

play in an inter-club competitive tennis league, traveling across the state

for competition, and in the spring they play USTA tennis out of Beaver Brook.

" We kind of look at how, over the years, " Lance said, " our game has

continued to improve, our strategy has improved, and how everything has

continued to get better. "

A lot of it, too, is instinct. While each is an accomplished singles player,

together they have the intuition and the confidence in each other to know who

is going to take care of a difficult ball that might fall between two players

less in sync with each other.

" It's a real feeling of just knowing each other's movement on the court, the

shadow of where the other person is, " said Lance, while White added, "" We

have learned each other's game. We know what our weaknesses our and our

strengths are. "

Sometimes it's the weaknesses, and not the strengths, which become the most

obvious things . . . even for a doubles team like White and Lance, which has

almost seemed infallible over the last several years.

" We have off days, too, " Lance said. " There are times when we can't hit a

ball. Our timing could be off, our concentration, everything, and we know,

within 10 minutes of our warmup, we know it's going to be a bad day. "

The move from the indoor court to the outdoor court slowed them down a little

early in the Stroock, but for two players who have connected so well indoors

or outdoors, it seemed nothing would keep the pair from an unprecedented

seventh consecutive Women's Doubles title.

As if it was simply fated to be.