By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST CHESTER - Luke and Murphy Jensen know how to win over a crowd. Thursday, that meant Luke yelling, "Hand warmers for all Jensen fans!"

That's how the coldest and boldest tennis match in the wacky brothers' career began Thursday night at Beckett Ridge Country Club. Murphy, wearing a Viking hat in the 20-degree chill, quipped to the crowd, "You bet I trained for this; I just got back from Anchorage."

Their platform tennis exhibition against reigning national champions Dave Ohlmuller and Chris Gambino was notable for the cold, which about 450 fans braved. The Jensens also gave the primarily country club sport its first lesson in trash talk.

"There has never, ever been trash talking in platform," Ohlmuller said. "We loved every minute of it."

The Jensens lampooned their novice standing when they asked loudly, "What are the rules?" Ohlmuller and Gambino beat them 6-1 in the first set.

The Jensens knew what act would play even better: quibbling siblings. So they split up, Murphy joining Gambino and Luke joining Ohlmuller, and traded barbs throughout the second set.

"Where's that in the rulebook, huh?" Murphy yelled when they switched. "I got rid of the dead weight, so now I'm going to roll."

Murphy drilled Luke in the ankle on one shot. That was mock vengeance for the occasion in practice earlier Thursday that Luke's paddle struck Murphy's left thumb, which was badly swollen Thursday night.

Luke and Ohlmuller would win the set in a tiebreak by a 7-4 score. The crowd cheered and laughed along with the Jensens, who showed much aptitude for having trained just two days.

"There's a fine line between stupid and clever when it comes to the Jensen brothers," Murphy said.

Ohlmuller said the only larger crowds the sport has drawn are for the national championship match, and by only a few people.

"This was incredible," he said. "It was like a U.S. Open night match."

The Jensens are staying to play in the Midwestern Tournament this weekend. Their first match will be at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Camargo Country Club.

"I got a couple calls today from other (platform) tourneys, asking us to play," Luke said. "We'll hook up with some of these."

E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com