For roughly an hour and 12 minutes, it appeared as if Trevor Crabb might have to be either dragged, carried, or airlifted off of court four in the Cancun Bubble, much less finish the actual match taking place on it. Between each point, hands would go on the knees, deep, gulping breaths taken. Sometimes he’d simply lay there, as he did up 18-17 in the second set to his brother, Taylor Crabb, and Jake Gibb. Other times he’d brush himself off with a towel, much to the chagrin of Taylor, who did, indeed, help Trevor earn a yellow card for his stalling efforts.
They seemed dead in the water, Trevor and Tri Bourne. It was their third match of the day, after needing to beat Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl to break pool, then Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira in the first round of elimination. All day, they played in the heat and humidity of the Mexican sun.
And when their ninth-place match start time of 10 p.m. rolled around, it far more resembled their bed time.
And yet, Taylor Crabb and Gibb, no matter how spectacular their play – and it was, without question, spectacular – could not put Bourne and Trevor Crabb to bed. After coming back from down 13-17 to win the first set, 28-26, Taylor and Gibb had thrust the proverbial dagger. All they needed was to give it a twist. Bourne and Trevor simply sat on the court, catching their breath, for the first 30 seconds of the 60 allotted between sets. By the time they actually got to their boxes it was time to return to the court.
It is a cliché in sports, to play each point as if it’s your last. But in so many ways it looked exactly like each point might be either Trevor Crabb or Bourne’s last before the medical team might have to be called in. Yet it never was. Somehow, Bourne was still hitting a hybrid jump serve and running up to block. Somehow, Trevor Crabb was still running down high lines and cut shots, extending rallies that could very well have been the death of them. Somehow, they were still fending off one Taylor Crabb and Gibb run after the next.
Until there was no more fending off to do. A block from Bourne them up, 9-6, in the third, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. But even the final point couldn’t come easy, because at this point, how could it? Trevor began celebrating early when Taylor’s dig – another in a long line of absurd digs from the Bug – shot over the net and seemingly out of play. But there Gibb went, chasing it down from under the net, bumping it back, giving Taylor an opportunity to send it back over the net where Trevor was somewhat unexpectedly still standing.
It was Trevor, not Bourne, who took the ensuing free ball, Trevor who chopped his signature line to the sand, the final point in a match that required 122 of them. And then they collapsed into one another, Bourne and Crabb, each propped up by the other, the weight of their Olympic dream not too heavy a burden to bear for one more night.
Their 26-28, 21-19, 15-13 win over Taylor Crabb and Gibb pushed them into the quarterfinals in Cancun, where they will meet Russians Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov on Saturday at noon Pacific, 2 p.m. Central, 3 p.m. Eastern.
They are not the only ones who white-knuckled their way to the quarterfinals. Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes, who won pool with a momentous win over Brazilians Agatha and Duda, needed all 56 minutes of match time to beat Germans Karla Borger and Julia Sude, 21-16, 19-21, 17-15. That win sets them up with quite the quarterfinal bout, against Canadians and World Champions Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan.
That match will be played at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Two other American teams remain in the tournament: April Ross and Alix Klineman, who play Switzerland’s Nina Betschart and Tanja Huberli at 8 a.m. Pacific; Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena play Dutch youngsters Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot at 1 p.m. Pacific.
