Bristowe and Motz qualify for US Open main draw
Woods-Casey and Hamilton fall short in tough qualifying matches
Freddie Bristowe has won through qualifying at the 2025 US Open at the Westwood Country Club for the second year running, alongside Noah Motz in the final two rounds of qualifying matches. Bristowe will play in the main draw for just the third time, including the 2021 tournament that was not played for IRTPA rankings. Meanwhile, Motz will make his debut Open main draw appearance at his home court.
It was an earlier start to the day for the second round of singles qualifying matches to allow sufficient break until the third round. Melbourne’s John Woods-Casey, having received a bye through the first round, played Newport’s Tony Hollins in the first match-up of the day. Hollins had been the victor in the only previous meeting between the two in the final round US Open qualifier in 2023 in Boston. Since that match, Woods-Casey has improved his game by leaps and bounds. He demonstrated it straight away, playing with precision and purpose, extracting good cut and length from the Westwood court on his way to a 3-1 lead. However, he relaxed into the game too much, making a few too many unforced errors through the next four games. Hollins sensed the moment and started attacking the ball more convincingly, evening the scoreline at 4-all. Woods-Casey refocussed, winning eight of the next eleven points to take the set.
Hollins took the iniative at the start of the second set, mixing in a classic floor game with some severe cut-volleys. He quickly established a 2-0 lead before Woods-Casey could dig in a defense. The match then descended into a gruelling tactical battle, with both players trying to move each other around the court to construct an opening to play into. The scoreboard was awash with chases, with both players looking to target the galleries or tight widths into the corners when the opportunity presented. Hollins was slowly winning the battle and had a couple of points for a 5-2 lead but could not convert them. Instead, the momentum swung the other way, with Woods-Casey notching up three quick games for a 5-4 lead himself. Woods-Casey had a match point in the 5-4 game, which Hollins defended with a main wall-tambour shot after a long rally. Conceding a chase, Hollins went down the hazard end, only to win the game with two great cut shots, beating Woods-Casey in the forehand corner. Hollins won the deciding game after attacking a few loose Woods-Casey demi-piques.
Spurred on by the loss of the set, Woods-Casey was exceptional in the final set, lunging into his backhand and clearing the net by the same three inches every shot. The final set raced by, with the Australian having all the run of the play. Hollins’s attack proved to be a paper tiger in the final set, as Woods-Casey had an answer for everything. Though it took Woods-Casey some time to find the final point, he moved through to the final qualifying round later that evening.
Woods-Casey had to wait to find out whether his next opponent would be Louis Gordon or Freddie Bristowe. Gordon was much more positive in his forcing than he had been against Trueman in his first round match, attacking the post-box of a dedans with his hard forcing. Bristowe was ready to clean up anything loose from Gordon, keeping the scoreboard ticking over with some good target hitting of his own. Although the early games were evenly fought, Bristowe discovered a weakness in Gordon when hitting balls onto the tambour, as Gordon couldn’t get behind the sharp angle the Westwood tambour produces. Bristowe quickly won through the last few games to take the set. Bristowe’s quick feet and attacking shots into the corners were too strong for Gordon, as the Petworth professional could not find much leverage on the balls coming low from the back wall. Once the scoreboard pressure built up, Gordon’s spirit appeared to be lost, as Bristowe cruised into the final qualifying round.
Moving over to the other qualification pathway, the second round qualifiers continued with a match between the amateurs Bertie Vallat and Noah Motz. Motz had won two 6/5 sets in their only previous encounter, at the Tuxedo Gold Racquet 12 months prior. Motz, now playing on his home court, settled into the match much more quickly than Vallat. Despite the backhand exchanges normally being Vallat’s strength, Motz was winning the battles as the tambour and back wall proved too difficult for Vallat. Even though his British opponent often had leads in each of the games, Motz’s ability to read the play helped pull him back into contention. He ended up winning the set easily, as Vallat’s resolve crumbled. By the second set, Motz was playing with complete freedom, hitting dedans and tambour winners at will and forcing errors out of Vallat. Motz had a habit of finding the nicks at both ends of the court, as he won the match easily.
The final match in the second round saw newly crowned Tuxedo Gold Racquet champion Oliver Pridmore pitted against Prested’s Vaughan Hamilton. Neither player had played in the early rounds —Pridmore received a bye and Hamilton received a walkover. Both players are renowned for their outlandish retrieval and inventive strokeplay, and were happy to oblidge for the dedicated Westwood crowd. Pridmore threw in a few signature slides, but it was Hamilton who first found an edge. Pridmore was overhitting his shots slightly, with balls on the back wall both above and below the penthouse giving Hamilton a chance to exit the rally with a powerful double-handed backhand, else the ball would often roll into the hazards when hitting under the grille. Hamilton held firm to take the first set.
Pridmore cleaned up his game going into the second set. The rallies became longer and longer, though it was often the case that each of them would play several difficult shots and miss the easy ones. The main wall dedans became a good outlet for ending the points or punishing any loose serves. The scoreboard inched forward one game at a time until eventually reaching 5-all. The first point of the deciding game saw Pridmore barely missing a grille, with Hamilton reacting at the last minute at the rattling ball to boast it above the service penthouse, only for Pridmore reach up and volley it into the winning gallery. Pridmore went down the hazard end at 30-0 with chases of 2 and 3 and last gallery pending, beating Hamilton into the backhand corner on the first and rolling it into a dedans on the second.
At the start of the third set, Pridmore looked to be physically struggling, the after-effects of a mid-week illness showing through. Hamilton rapidly shot to a 4-0 lead in the set before Pridmore’s second wind kicked in, battling for the service end by any means necessary. Pridmore won the next three games straight but couldn’t carry on. Hamilton was more precise in his strokeplay towards the end which carried him over the line to a victory and a place in the final qualifier against Motz.
A few hours passed before the final round of qualifying matches could begin, starting between Woods-Casey and Bristowe. It was a rematch of the same stage in the 2024 US Open in Philadelphia, which saw Bristowe qualifying through in three sets. The match saw plenty of long rallies with tight backhands aplenty. After a few close early exchanges, Bristowe went on a run of several dedans in a row, breaking through on the scoreboard. With the wind behind him, Bristowe sailed through the last few games of the set fairly quickly, hitting better lengths than Woods-Casey and reading the ball off the back wall better.
Woods-Casey was visibly irate at the start of the second set, gesturing at the court and shouting at himself when losing a couple of key points. Bristowe by now was dominating the play, reading the ball early and moving forward to cut it off before the back wall. Woods-Casey kept experimenting, trying to solve the puzzle, while Bristowe kept cutting the ball down into Woods-Casey’s forehand and beating him. Bristowe lead the set from start to finish, booking his place in the main draw to play Ben Taylor-Matthews.
The last match of the qualifying draw was between Motz and Hamilton. The viewing galleries packed out to see if their local favourite could progress to the main draw. The match was tight, with very few mistakes by either player meaning each point had to be earned. Neither play established a lead in the first set, with Motz eventually reaching a 5-4 lead. He had a set point in that game, but it was attacking a chase 2. Hamilton saw it off, then went down the hazard end to beat a chase 1 and 2 of his own. Motz beat two chases to open the deciding game, cutting the ball down severely off the back wall. Laying a worse than 1 chase into an open courtwas enough to secure the set for Motz.
Motz was bouyed by the home crowd going into the second set, playing with freedom and surety. One notable rally included a Federer-style tweener, running back towards the grille after playing the previous ball from the hazards. Hamilton would not keel over, though, fighting his way back into the second set. There was plenty of excellent retrieving from both players as they launched themselves around the court. Once again, Motz reached 5-4 first, but the now-vocal crowd couldn’t stop Vaughan from taking the next game to love, sending it into a decider for the second time. Despite an ace from Hamilton, Motz secured two match points defending two chases. He launched the second high on the back wall, as all Hamilton could do was helplessly watch the ball back over the net for a chase the line. Hamilton put Motz’s final serve into the net. Motz moves on to his first Open main draw and will play World Champion Camden Riviere.
The main draw commences on Saturday with the first four matches of the first round. Live streams of all matches can be found on the USCTA YouTube channel, with full match listings available from the USCTA website.
Match results:
8:30 am: John Woods-Casey def Tony Hollins 6/4 5/6 6/3
9:45 am: Louis Gordon lost to Freddie Bristowe 3/6 1/6
11:00 am: Bertie Vallat lost to Noah Motz 1/6 0/6
12:15 pm: Vaughan Hamilton def Oliver Pridmore 6/3 5/6 6/3
4:00 pm John Woods-Casey lost to Freddie Bristowe 2/6 3/6
5:15pm: Noah Motz Vaughan Hamilton 6/5 6/5
Order of play for Saturday (all times EST):
11:00 am Leon Smart vs Barney Tanfield
1:00 pm Josh Dodgson vs John Lumley
3:00 pm Nick Howell vs Darren Long
5:00 pm Ben Taylor-Matthews vs Freddie Bristowe