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Fairfield Family Rallies to Net Title

Trish and Danny Pavoni didn't like this one bit. They lost in the Pilot Pen Tennis Family Classic finals when Danny was 11 without winning a game, and in Thursday's final of the Mother and Son 14-year-old division they dropped the first set 6-0 to Stamford's Louise and Daniel Soifer. "We didn't want to have déjà vu," Trish said.

Trish and Danny fought back this time. They rallied to win, 0-6, 6-4, 10-7 to capture the championship. (The third set is a 10-point tiebreaker, and the team must win by two.) The Pavonis rallied after losing the first eight games to defeat the two-time defending champions.

"I think Danny and I felt a little bit of pressure,'' Trish says. "I knew they were really good players, and it was going to be a tough match for us."

The Pavonis evened the match at 2-2 in the second set. The Soifers seemed to grab momentum back and went up 4-2 with Daniel Soifer serving. The Pavonis broke, however, and reeled off four more wins to take the second set.

In the tiebreaker, the Pavonis, who play out of Oak Lane Country Club in Woodbridge, won four of the first five points. "I was happy that history didn't repeat itself,'' Danny said.

A large contingent of fans supported the Pavonis. Besides family and friends, members of the Intensity Tennis Club in Norwalk, where they also play, and Oak Lane came to root for them.

"I found my rhythm in the second set, and I think they had a little more pressure on them as the match went along,'' Danny said. "Once we settled down in the second set, we could feel we were getting some momentum."

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