After a three-hour battle on the tennis court with James Nearing, Kristian Kiland's face was flushed, his cramped legs were aching and he was ready to head for home.
He was looking forward to a hot shower and a long rest on the couch, but most of all he was anxious to set the Matt Altizer Memorial Cup on his trophy case.
That was his reward for defeating Nearing in a three-set tiebreaker, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in the men's open singles championship Saturday afternoon at Prince George Tennis Club.
"I was up 5-love in the tiebreaker and wanted to win 7-0 but to his credit he didn't let me have it for a second," said the 19-year-old Kiland. "I tried to put everything to his backhand but he's quick too, so he can get around and still hit a forehand even when I'm hitting to his backhand side."
Kiland's strategy to try to avoid Nearing's devastating forehand smash worked well for him, but Nearing's first-serve zingers were tough to contend with in the early going. Eventually though, fatigue set in and Nearing's serving game began to falter, a problem that plagued both players in the third set when they broke serve in five consecutive games.
Kiland, who just returned from an eight-month stint playing NAIA varsity tennis for Doane College in Nebraska, made great use of his slicing backhanders.
"It really worked for me in a lot of ways because it kept the ball low, which means he couldn't really attack it because he had to hit it up over the net," said Kiland. "When we were both cramping in our quads, the lower he had to bend the better."
It wasn't a hot day but the extended action left Nearing laying on the court writhing in pain holding his cramping leg muscles late in the second set. Kiland had the same problem creep up on him when he was serving for the match, leading the third set 5-4.
A well-placed lob from Nearing close to the baseline tied the match and he forced Kiland to return a serve into the net to take a 6-5 lead. But Kiland skunked him in the next game to force the tiebreaker and continued to dictate play, winning the first five tie-break points. Nearing reeled off four straight points and got within one, but the match ended when Nearing's return hit the net to cap a 10-hit rally, prompting a celebratory yell from Kiland.
"I started cramping in the second set but took some painkillers and kept going," said the six-foot-five Nearing. "It was a tight match and we were both hitting good shots and he won it outright by hitting good shots.
"I was pretty tired. He outlasted me and just had that extra bit for the rallies at the end. You start losing your legs and can't put that full motion into your serves and so you're just using your arm mostly. He did a good job handling the serve and just bumping it back in play and getting the rallies going.
The 24-year-old Nearing is a new player on the Prince George tennis scene, having moved to the city this year from Ontario to take a job as a process engineer at Husky Energy. The native of Cobourg, Ont., is a former Ontario high school champion and a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, where he played one year of university tennis.
Nearing's energy levels were already taxed right before the singles final when he and doubles partner Phil Redding got pushed to three sets while losing to Nolan Schwab and Andrej Vdovenko in a match that lasted an hour and 45 minutes. Kiland and his brother Jim Condon needed only about a half-hour to beat Les Obst and Jonathan Heil in their doubles match.
Kiland and Condon went on to win the 5.0 men's doubles round robin tournament, while Vdovenko/Schwab placed second.
Other P.G. Open results were as follows: 4.5 singles --Neal Gooding defeated Michel Aka 6-2, 6-2; 3.0 singles --Fara over Corrie 6-2, 6-7, 6-4; 4.5 doubles -- Champions: Michel Aka/Darren Smit; Runners-up: Iain Macritchie/Rick Barkowski; Mixed 5.0 open doubles -- Jim and Nancy Condon defeated Kristian Kiland and Susie Walker, 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.
