The Matlock Report

Saturday in Sioux Falls was upon us! We had traveled, eaten at my favorite Chinese restaurant, made our plans for departure and were ready for some tennis action! Super Duper Saturday began with the Doubles Finals match of Juan Jose Bianchi (VEN) and Andrew Fenty (USA) taking on Rinky Hijikata (AUS) and Mac Kiger (USA). I’ve seen more doubles at the high school level than I have at the professional level but these guys were pretty good too, just kidding they were great! It was everything I could have hoped for and when the dust settled, it was the duo of Hijikata and Kiger taking home the top prize in straight sets 6-4 6-4.

I identified a bunch of pictures for this match to possibly post. Maybe it was because it was four players and not two? I don’t really know. Let’s meet our contestants!

Rinky Hijikata (Left) and Mac Kiger (Right)

Juan Jose Bianchi (Left) and Andrew Fenty (Right)

Fenty shows his powerful serve!

Hijikata and Kiger celebrate a point won. Now that we know everyone, let’s show some of the amazing talent on display in this match.

Here we have “The Rinky Guys” standing up and cheering for their guy!

The following set of pictures are a tinge out of focus but what Rinky tries to do is incredible so I’m going to give this a shot.

Buckle up now for “The Tweener”!

It didn’t make it back over the net but I’ll still give it an A+ for effort!

All right, let’s close this puppy up with a few more for the road….

It had been a few years since I’d been to Sioux Falls, SD. The trip, overall, was fantastic. Along the way, I had time to take some non-tennis related pictures. Some were at the house of our relatives, who were kind enough to let us stay at their house, and some were at Falls Park.

A beautiful birch tree in the front yard.

The trees in the back yard were beautiful as the leaves changed colors.

Close…. closer…. closest.

Despite living within close proximity to Sioux Falls for most of my youth, I had never been to Falls Park. I highly recommend it if you are in the area.

A few pictures of the railroad tracks before we headed off for lunch and another day of tennis.

This was the last match of the day on Friday. Antoine Ghibaudo (FRA) beat Martin Damm (USA) in straight sets by a score of 7-6 6-4. This was a great match to watch, lots of good pictures. Hopefully.

Ghibaudo stretches out to make the return.

Ghibaudo serves.

Damm with a serve of his own.

Damm with the return.

Ghibaudo searches for the ball to come back down.

If I tried to contort my body, as Damm does, I would be in bed for a week. Nice shot.

As the point ends, Damm walks back to the line.

Damm says “Don’t worry, I can return that”.

Ghibaudo looking good!

I especially like Damm’s “behind the back” shot.

Here’s what the TV coverage looks like….

Ghibaudo pumped up!

Rinky Hijikata (AUS) is a staple on main ATP Tour, he has won a Grand Slam in Doubles. He’s a pretty solid player. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of Patrick Kypson (USA) before the match but he is a good player in his own right. Kypson defeated Hijikata in straight sets 6-4 6-4.

Let’s meet our contestants today…. Rinky Hijikata (Left) and Patrick Kypson (Right).

Rinky with the toss…. serve… hits the net tape… and falls back on his side of the net.

Is it an earthquake making things go off kilter? No, it’s Patrick Kypson with a classic service motion.

Both of these guys went all out for the entire match. Here’s some examples of their heroics…

I did get some good close-up shots during this match, here’s a couple of them.

Let’s finish this up with Kypson with a fabulous return.

I was excited to see this match begin and was also glad when it ended. I have seen Jordan Thompson play several matches on the main ATP Tour and was psyched that we were going to get to see him play. Thompson was apparently on the brink of not participating in the tournament due to injury. The match started and it was very obvious that Thompson was in a lot of pain. Rosenkranz won the first set 7-5 and won the first game of the second set, at which point Thompson retired. Thompson tried hard but his body wasn’t holding up, hopefully when the calendar turns at December 31st, Jordan will be ready to take on 2026.

Jordan Thompson with a nice return.

The Thompson serve!

Rosenkranz getting some good height on that toss!

Rosenkranz celebrates a point well played.

Thompson and his heavily taped leg on serve.

Sitting behind the camera man has its advantages.

This was the first match of the day. Joannus “Jo Mo” Monday (GBR) taking on Andres Martin (USA). Jo Mo is victorious in straight sets by the score of 6-3 6-3.

Martin shows how we serve in the USA!

Monday getting ready to serve.

Swing…. and follow through.

Some closeups of Martin

A couple of of Monday as well.

Monday hits the ball right at us for the win.

In this match we had Juan Jose Bianchi (VEN) and Andrew Fenty (USA) defeating Justin Boulais (CAN) and Mitchell Krueger (USA) with a score of 6-3 7-6.

I don’t have a lot of pictures of this match as I wandered into it during a set change of the singles match I was watching but let’s try it anyway.

Andrew Fenty serves as Juan Jose Bianchi stands his ground.

Same concept only Justin Boulais serves as Mitchell Krueger guards the net.

Mitchell Krueger to serve….

Bianchi makes a great return as Fenty charges the net.

The MarketBeat Open Challenger event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was a good time. My youngest and I skipped a day of school and work and headed West until just inside the South Dakota border.

Here we have some pictures from the first Doubles Semifinal match that we saw which was Rinky Hijikata (AUS) and Mac Kiger (USA) versus Patrick Harper (AUS) and Johannus Monday (GBR).

Hijikata (Left) and Kiger (Right) teeing up their shots.

Monday (Left) serves while Harper (Right) awaits the return.

Harper goes airborne for the return.

A few weeks ago, we were at St. Thomas for Parents Weekend and sat in on the Women’s Volleyball match. As with a lot of things lately my thought was “this would make for some good pictures” and so I decided to attend yesterday’s match. The Tommies lost to the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits 1 – 3. It was a fun time though and the pictures came out pretty good or so I thought.

Let’s start this out with some pictures of various serves throughout the day:

Top Row – Jackrabbits – Left: Sylvie Zgonc (# 10) Middle: Madison Burr (#8) Right: Rachel Wieber (#2)

Bottom Row – Tommies – Left: Ella Voegele (#4) Middle: Taylor McNear (#3) Right: Megan Wetter (#8)

Jackrabbit Hannah Klein (#4) waits for the pass to come back into view.

Tommie Addie Schmotzer (#22) sets the ball.

St. Thomas’ Morgan Kealy (#5) with a set of her own.

Timeout….

Tommie’s Megan Wetter (#8) and Tezra Rudzitis (#15) are ready for the block from SDSU’s Sylvie Zgonc (#10).

Jackrabbit Rylee Martin (#5) watches…. “is it out? is it out? It’s out.”

SDSU’s Madison Burr (#8) seemingly hovering in mid air while waiting the ball.

St. Thomas Tommie Morgan Kealy (#5) slides for the ball.

Tommie Megan Wetter (#8) watches the shot.

Sydni Schetnan (#11) and some of the other Jackrabbits appear to be ready to dance in a music video.

(Left) Tommie Addie Schmotzer (#22) blows a shot past SDSU’s Sydni Schenan (#11). (Right) Tommie Anya Schmidt winds up for the kill.

I’ve been to a couple of St. Thomas University football games this year and thought I would try to get some pictures this time. It wasn’t the overwhelming success I had hoped for but it was fun all the same.

Pre-game coin flip and a herd of zebras.

St. Thomas Quarterback Andy Peters (#2) takes the snap and throws a pass early in the game.

The Tommies offensive line hard at work.

I’m not sure that chokeholds are allowed in College Football, but I guess that’s for the courts to decide.

Quarterback Andy Peters getting a push on his tush from Running Back Cam Miller.

Ok, so this was the funniest picture that I took all day. It was for me anyway. St. Thomas wide receivers made a habit of continually looking at the sideline before the play as if they didn’t know what was about to happen. Here, three St. Thomas players look utterly confused as play is about to begin.

One more for the road…. pre-snap action late in the game.