Favourites safely through British Open second round
Lumley, Howell, Taylor-Matthews and Shenkman secure progression to quarter-finals
The tournament favourites have progressed through the second round of the British Open unphased at the Queen’s Club on Tuesday, with John Lumley, Nick Howell, Ben Taylor-Matthews and Robert Shenkman all progressing through in straight sets.
The day began with a battle between the top two amateurs in the country: Robert Shenkman and Bertie Vallat. The pair had played four previous times over the past 13 months, with Vallat pushing Shenkman further each time, so the buzz around the club was as to whether he could push the amateur champion into a fourth or fifth set. Shenkman was determined not to let it be the case as the pair played out a series of defensive backhand rallies, both keeping the ball short and tidy. Like a chess grandmaster, Shenkman was excellent at picking apart any subtle inaccuracies in Vallat’s play, exploiting them until he was able to earn each point. After Shenkman took the first three games, Vallat found a slight weakness himself, as his drag serve was causing Shenkman to misjudge his cut-volley. But once Shenkman made a few tactical adjustments — and once Vallat’s length of serve started to waver — the amateur champion was able to press home the advantage once more to take the first set.
As with the first set, the second set was a tight battle early on, keeping with the theme of backhand exchanges. But slowly, Shenkman built a narrow lead on the scoreboard yet again, and the floodgates began to burst with a flood of points coming his way. Vallat’s frustration threatened to boil over as he began teeing off at the ball towards the end of the second set, culminating in an official warning for language in the final game. The warning, combined with the sense of the inevitable, calmed Vallat down in the third set. Though he did try and avoid the losing backhand battle, he was unable to find any tactic to make further progress in the match, as Shenkman’s reliability and consistency were far too strong. Shenkman’s win puts him through to play Robert Fahey in the quarter-final.
The second match of the day was between qualifier Henry Henman and second seed Nick Howell. Howell was eager to stamp out any notion that Henman could repeat the feat of fellow qualifier Will Flynn from the previous day in making the quarter-finals. He was not interested in tapping around gentle rallies with Henman, looking instead to finish the point as quickly as possible. Henman was missing his mark in his shotmaking, giving Howell plenty of opportunities to find winners. Henman was attempting to establish an advantage in the rally before Howell found his inevitable big finish, but all it meant was he was overextending himself too early with the mistakes flowing readily. The first set ended as a rather bruising bagel to Howell.
Henman played more patiently in the second set, with the games becoming more competitive and with the younger pro seeing more of the service end. From there, he was better able to use the court to his advantage in generating more counterplay against Howell. But Howell’s quality was still strong enough to maintain his edge throughout the second set. By the third set, Henman was much more in control of his attacking shots, with a series of slapped return of serve volleys into the backhand corner of the dedans a particular highlight. Howell wasn’t pressing with the same intensity as Henman stayed in touch through to 3-all. His confidence grew, as his attacking shots came with power and purpose. A couple of excellent winners later and Henman had a 5/3 advantage. Howell won back the next game to love. Henman had a trio of set points in the tenth game but was beaten on the backhand on each occasion. Howell’s forcing game was strong enough to send the set into a deciding eleventh game instead. Howell decided the best way to resolve the final game was with pace, sending in a barrage of forces at the dedans, taking the match with a grille and moving on to play Will Flynn in the quarter-final.
After half an hour break the penultimate second round match went on, with Melbourne’s John Woods-Casey taking on third seed Ben Taylor-Matthews from Westwood. Woods-Casey won the toss and elected to receive, his choice immediately paying dividends by taking the first game of the match by plucking balls out of the air on the forehand volley. It would not last, however, as Taylor-Matthews established control of the floor game with good changes of pace and variations of line. Woods-Casey was making enough errors that it was sufficient for Taylor-Matthews to sustain the rally for as long as needed for the mistake to come. Despite fleeting moments of brilliance Woods-Casey would not win another game until the fourth game of the second set. For Taylor-Matthews, the match served as excellent preparation for the challenges to come later in the week, finding his finish well, while the result was frustrating for the Australian as he failed to make tactical inroads into Taylor-Matthews. Taylor-Matthews won the final set with ease, setting up a quarter-final contest against Bryn Sayers.
The second round concluded with a match between the first seed in the Open draw John Lumley and the first seed in the women’s draw Claire Fahey. The pair first met on a real tennis court way back in 2002 at the British Junior Under 12’s in a match won by Fahey 3 games to 2. Many things have happened in both player’s career’s since, extending to the top of their respective games. On this particular evening, the packed-out dedans was treated to a world-class display of how to control the ball in the air, with both players pulling off some unbelievable volleys hitting with outstanding reflexes and control. Lumley’s retrieval was on point, barely giving away a point from the service end. The rallies were high quality with very few errors, but Lumley was generally better able to find winners when needed. The scoreline did not reflect the standard of tennis on display, as Lumley secured his place in the quarter finals.
Play continues on Wednesday with the first round of the Open doubles as well as the first of the women’s quarter-finals. The major news regarding the latter draw is the withdrawal of Nicola Doble from the singles draw due to a scheduling conflict. Jess Garside has been promoted to the fourth seed position and will now play Jo See Tan, while Alex Garside enters the draw as a lucky loser to play Georgie Willis.
Match results:
12:00 PM: Bertie Vallat lost to Robert Shenkman (6) 2/6 1/6 1/6
2:00 PM: Henry Henman lost to Nick Howell (2) 0/6 1/6 5/6
4:00 PM: John Woods-Casey lost to Ben Taylor-Matthews (3) 1/6 2/6 1/6
6:00 PM: John Lumley (1) def Claire Fahey 6/1 6/1 6/0
Order of play for Wednesday (all times GMT):
Queen’s East:
12:00 PM: Georgie Willis (3) vs Alex Garside
2:00 PM: Darren Long & Bertie Vallat vs Zak Eadle & Nino Merola
4:00 PM: Jo See Tan vs Jess Garside (4)
6:00 PM: Claire Fahey & Louis Gordon vs Ned Batstone & James Medlow
Queen’s West:
12:00 PM: Levi Gale & Lewis Williams (5) vs Will Flynn & Henry Henman
2:00 PM: Claire Fahey (1) vs Sabrina Didizian
4:00 PM: Nick James & Neil Mackenzie vs Josh Dodgson & John Woods-Casey (6)
6:00 PM: Alexandra Bryant vs Tara Lumley (2)