Poplar Bluff's top-seeded doubles team was cruising along Tuesday, when some rust finally showed. A pair of double-faults, including one on break point, gave Cape Central its first game of the match.
"Definitely felt a little rust there, especially on my serve," Poplar Bluff senior Humza Siddiqui said. "I didn't really feel the motion there at times. I think after playing a few games, just getting back into it was fine."
It had been 11 days since the Mules last played a competitive match and here they were trying to defend their MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 title on a warm day.
"The time off showed," Mules coach Charles Harper said. "I was worried."
Poplar Bluff needed just over 90 minutes to work out the kinks and sweep Cape Central, 5-0, in the semifinal.
The Mules (8-1) will host Farmington (9-3) at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the championship match. Poplar Bluff beat the Knights 5-1 to win its first title last year.
Farmington beat second-seeded Oakville 5-4 in the other semifinal Tuesday.
"Even though we beat Farmington, I think 8-1, we shouldn't take them lightly," Siddiqui said. "We're definitely with the mindset that either one of those guys can beat us.
"We have to play our best match."
Siddiqui and doubles partner Trenton Nepean were perfect in the first three games against Central's Spencer Kidd and Bennett Kidd, winning the first 12 points of the match.
The Tigers rallied to force deuce in the fourth game but an ace by Nepean broke a second deuce point before a long volley put Poplar Bluff up 4-0. Central rallied again in the sixth game to force deuce after giving up a 30-love lead but took it on a second double-fault by Siddiqui in the game.
"The serve motion sometimes wasn't there," Siddiqui said. "I didn't feel confident for some reason, I wasn't swinging through all the way.
"I was getting that back in singles and I got two aces in one game so it was a lot better."
Siddiqui later beat Spencer Kidd 6-2, 6-2 in the top-seeded singles match.
In doubles, the Tigers broke serves by Siddiqui and Neapen three times as the Mules won 8-3.
"On their serve we were just returning it and putting away at the net," Siddiqui said. "But on our serve they could take advantage of double faults and weak second serves that we had.
"Just not really too consistent on the serve during doubles but we managed to break them back and that's what helped us."
Ben Stewart and Nathan Smith beat Central's Justin Nguyen and Zach Brock 8-2 while Poplar Bluff's Adeesh Mishra and Brett Keele won 8-3 over Levi Wilson and Luke Mayes.
All six Mules won their opening set in singles play but Keele was first to close out his match at No. 6 against Mayes, 6-2, 6-4.
The Mules got a scare at No. 3 when Stewart fell to the court with an injury. The sophomore, who had a foot injury earlier in the year, had a leg cramp up on him and was able to continue.
"I told him if he was hurting we could forfeit it but he's not going to," Harper said. "He's going to play on, not going to walk off and have a loss."
Stewart has yet to lose a singles match after winning 15 last year and all eight this season.
Siddiqui improved to 16-1 in singles play this season. His lone loss was at the Springfield Invitational to a player from Oklahoma. The senior, who has a 49-14 career singles record, will attempt to become Poplar Bluff's first singles district champion since Malay Bhatt in 2007 at the individual tournament later this week in Farmington.
Last year, Siddiqui lost in three sets -- 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 --to Farmington's Alex England in the district final. The two will square off again Wednesday. They've split eight matches in which they were able to finish and in the last meeting were tied 4-4 when rain halted the match.
"Even though I won the past two times, I'm definitely not taking him lightly," Siddiqui said. "I know he's improving, learning how to handle my game."
The Mules beat Farmington 8-1 on April 24 but three of Poplar Bluff's wins were decided by four games or less. The Knights got a win at No. 4 singles.
Other than a 7-2 win against Notre Dame on April 27 and a few matches at the Farmington Invitational the following day, the Mules had just one day outside to hit before practice Monday.
"Yeah, it was a little bit of rust all the way around," Harper said. "In retrospect, we probably should have worked a little more on conditioning maybe last week."