Dodgson upsets Virgona in Schochet Cup First Round after winning Satellite
Remainder of seeds progress to quarter-finals untroubled
Josh Dodgson has won a historic victory over Steve Virgona in the first round of the US Professional Singles playing for the Schochet Cup in Newport, just days after winning the US Professional Satellite on the same court.
The main draw of the US Professional Singles began on Wednesday morning, with New York professional Barney Tanfield challenging eighth seed Lewis Williams. Both players are renowned for their target hitting, which they fought to a draw. Instead, it was the floor play distinguished between the two players. Williams had the court covered well, picking up Tanfield’s shots easily off the back wall while maintaining a difficult length in response. Though the early couple of games were close, Williams quickly established himself as the dominant player in the first set. Williams led from start to finish in the second set as well, proving himself adept at punishing any errors from his opponent. The third set was, on paper, the best for Tanfield, but his extra games came when he was already behind. Williams survived the last few games required to secure his place in the quarter-finals for the first time in the competition.
Josh Dodgson had impressed throughout the Satellite, winning the final against an imploding Vaughan Hamilton the day before the main draw started. His opponent in the main draw was fifth seed Steve Virgona. Dodgson — by now very familiar with how the Newport court was playing — got off to a fast start while Virgona was struggling to gain purchase off the third ball of the rallies. Virgona worked his way back into the set, though he found in Dodgson an opponent willing to play out the longer rallies. Just as Virgona looked as though he would level the set at 5-all, Dodgson found a knick railroad to win the first set.
Dodgson was not afraid to play the ball into Virgona’s forehand, normally one of the left-hander’s strongest weapons. Instead, he often found himself jammed against the wall, unable to get a decent shot away at Dodgson. Again, Dodgson got off to an early lead in the second set and, again, Virgona was able to restore the equality. But the Australian couldn’t press on to a lead — his efforts to finish rallies resulted in more errors than he would like. Dodgson won the last three straight games to earn a two-set lead.
Virgona had vast experience of best-of-five set tennis to draw on to try and recover his situation. But the cleanliness of Dodgson’s rallying stood in the way, breaking out a lead for the third straight set. The state of the scoreboard took the sting out of Virgona’s play, resigning himself to his first defeat to a worse-than-scratch handicap player since the introduction of online handicaps. Dodgson will play a quarter-final for the first time at the Shochet Cup in eight attempts.
The next match was between Satellite finalist Vaughan Hamilton and former World Champion Robert Fahey. Fahey was on solid form, showing off how he could still consistently hit the sweet spot of his racket despite his ongoing retirement. He opened up his trademark force early on, attacking any ball that he had any width on. Hamilton was throwing himself around the court trying as hard as he could to get the ball back over the net, but, more often than not, was met by another bomb from Fahey. Trailing 0–3 in the third set, Hamilton let go of his inhibitions and played his shots without fear. It brought him back into the set, but Fahey wasn’t going to give away a set so easily. Fahey regrouped, raising the intensity for a short period to push him over the line.
The first day ended with a match between the number 1 seed and recent US Open champion John Lumley and the home head professional Tony Hollins. Throughout the match it was evident that Hollins was outmatched by Lumley. In particular, Lumley found plenty of success targeting the forehand corner on the return of serve, never giving away a loose ball that would give Hollins an advantage. Hollins picked up his solitary game halfway through the third set as Lumley cruised into the quarter-final.
The second day of first round matches started with sixth seed Leon Smart playing Louis Gordon. Smart took a while to warm up against an aggressive Gordon, but quickly found his groove. His high serves were finding their mark, preventing Gordon leaning into his force. Instead, Gordon could only spoon back a response, allowing Smart the opening to hit a winner. Once he was behind on the scoreboard, Gordon struggled to push back with Smart registering a comfortable victory.
The following match pitted Darren Long against second seed Nick Howell. Howell utilised his recent preparation for the World Championship Eliminators well, hitting clean and positive shots and putting Long onto the defensive. To his credit, Long held on well, extending the rallies and asking the questions of Howell. In the sixth game of the match, when lunging into the corner to reach a ball Long tweaked something in his leg, taking a short injury time out. He was slightly hesitant on his return, allowing Howell a few quick games, before Howell took his foot off the accelerator. Long took advantage of some weak shots from Howell to bring the set back to 5-all. Long had a set point and an open ball onto the tambour but could only hit the net. Howell recovered the serve and defended the short chase to survive the set.
Long initially carried the momentum into the second set, notching up the first two games. Howell slowly turned the direction of the play as he rediscovered his consistency. Howell won the next seven consecutive games, taking the second set in the process. By the time Long won his next game, he was well behind in the match. He wouldn’t give in easily though, pushing Howell to 3–all and then 4–all in the third set. Howell needed to muster one final push for the line, which he managed with the aid of his accurate forcing at the dedans.
Robert Shenkman carried on his new-found attacking style of play from recent months into his match against Nino Merola. He brought pace and precision to his game, boasting the ball wherever possible to force Merola to have to adjust late. Merola was not seeking to introduce much cut into the rallies, finding himself in long exchanges against a player with a higher quality finish. As much as Merola tried to extract himself from difficult rallies, it was often not enough as Shenkman bullied his way through the points. Merola’s guile and cunning brought the second set into play, challenging Shenkman to have to fight to hold on to a narrow lead throughout. The third set was the toughest battle, with the lead changing several times and the play even. Shenkman eventually found a four-game streak to close out the match.
The final first round match pitted the third seed Ben Taylor-Matthews against Josh Smith. Smith was playing in his first competitive tournament in seventeen months and had moved from Holyport to Newport since his last outing. Despite his impressive victory over Merola in the Satellite, he couldn’t match Taylor-Matthews’ consistency. Smith was searching for big shots, but Taylor-Matthews was excellent at absorbing the attack, waiting for the mistakes to happen rather than playing extravagant shots. Smith’s best set was the third, when his strokeplay was a little more incisive. Though he challenged Taylor-Matthews to 4–all, the third seed calmly held on and progressed to the quarter-final.
Play continues on Friday with the four quarter-final matches, followed by the semi-finals and finals over the weekend.
Match results:
Wednesday 9:30 AM: Lewis Williams (8) def Barney Tanfield 6/2 6/2 6/4
Wednesday 11:30 AM: Steve Virgona (5) lost to Josh Dodgson 4/6 3/6 3/6
Wednesday 1:30 PM: Robert Fahey (4) def Vaughan Hamilton 6/1 6/1 6/4
Wednesday 3:30 PM: John Lumley (1) def Tony Hollins 6/0 6/0 6/1
Thursday 10:00 AM: Louis Gordon lost to Leon Smart (6) 2/6 1/6 1/6
Thursday 12:00 PM: Darren Long lost to Nick Howell (2) 5/6 2/6 4/6
Thursday 2:00 PM: Nino Merola lost to Robert Shenkman (7) 2/6 4/6 3/6
Thursday 4:30 PM: Josh Smith lost to Ben Taylor-Matthews (3) 2/6 1/6 4/6
Order of play for Friday (all times EDT):
11:00 AM: John Lumley (1) vs Leon Smart (6)
1:00 PM: Lewis Williams (8) vs Ben Taylor-Matthews (3)
3:00 PM: Robert Fahey (4) vs Robert Shenkman (7)
5:00 PM: Josh Dodson vs Nick Howell (2)