Hager comeback leads to men's title

There aren't many 17-year-olds that have to make a comeback in men's tennis, but Drew Hager posted one of the more amazing ones ever seen.
Hager won the Moose Jaw Tennis Club men's crown with a stirring come-from-behind win over Jim Kirkpatrick, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6. The Central student took the first set but lost the second after a rain delay and fell behind 5-0 in the third set before mounting a shocking comeback that resulted in the tiebreaker victory.
"I don't know what it was," said Hager of what started the turnaround. "I just kind of calmed down. I had it in my mind I was coming back. I just needed to hit some shots and not play like crap for the last couple of minutes of the year. Then I just kept on winning games and kept rolling."
Hager also had to make another comeback to get to the crown. He was champion of the club at age 15 but then lost last year to Kirkpatrick before returning to the top.
Hager's game was fraught with double faults, which cost him the serve advantage several times.
"That's always been an issue of mine," he said. "I go for the harder second serve, and when it's not perfectly up there, it's hard to do. It's just mental errors."
Hager got to the final when Gene Rizak pulled out of a semi-final to focus on winning the mens doubles crown with Clayton Sjoberg. Kirkpatrick, meanwhile, played a tough semi-final with Brian Swanson 7-5, 7-6 Sunday morning before the final afternoon battle with Hager.
Kirkpatrick was helped out in the second set when a rain delay slicked up the court long enough to take a break. The set was tied 1-1 but Kirkpatrick won 6-3 and carried a significant advantage with his strong, crosscourt volleys.
"I think the difference is sometimes, my forehand is working," said Kirkpatrick. "To start the third set, she was going pretty good and Drew was giving me enough forehands, I was able to get a pretty good lead on him.
"But you've got to be able to finish things off. I just left it too long and I didn't know where I was going to make my stand when he was coming back."
Clearly, the match with Swanson took some toll on Kirkpatrick's mobility.
"I love playing these guys," said Kirkpatrick, a former club president. "If you can still compete against some of these juniors when you're 60 years old, that's a bonus for me."
Kirkpatrick gave full credit to Hager.
"He put the ball in the right place and served well in the last day."
In the men's doubles final, Rizak and Sjoberg defeated Hager and Rob Parker 6-3, 6-2. Gena Parent defeated Joan Buckmaster in the women's singles final 6-2, 6-2. Hager and Buckmaster defeated Mark LeBere and Brigit Wiebe 6-4, 6-3 in the mixed doubles final.
Wednesday is the ladies doubles final.

Corey Atkinson can be reached at 691-1260