Flynn beats Smart at British Open saving eight set points in fourth set
Gale continues winning record over Williams
Will Flynn’s excellent British Open continued at Queen’s on Monday, defeating fifth seed Leon Smart, becoming the first qualifier in at least decades — possibly ever — to reach the quarter-final stage. Meanwhile, Levi Gale also recorded a breakthrough win, taking out eighth seed Lewis Williams in their second round match.
The second round matches kicked off with a match between Levi Gale and Lewis Williams, a rematch of their encounter in the French Open back in September. From the start, Gale was experimenting with a side wall serve delivered from as close to the battery wall as possible. The theory, at least, was to jam Williams backwards, as he was renowned for trying to play as much as possible off the back wall. Once into the rally, Gale was able to find a good line and weight of his shot, his balls often beating Williams in a race for the back wall. The first few games were scrappy, with neither player really hitting their mark. But Gale settled into the match quicker, holding vigil at the service end for more than double the number of points Williams had over the first set. Gale broke away at the latter stages of the first set, racing away to 6/3.
Gale carried the momentum into the second, working his way to a 5/1 lead with relative ease. However, Williams was starting to find a decent response to Gale’s serving with some effective cut-volleys, and was coming back strong. Williams saved three set points in the 5/2 game with some decent railroads followed up with good length balls onto the tambour. Williams took the 5/3 game to love before having several points in the following game to send the set into a decider. A switch to a demi-pique serve by Gale was enough to shake up Williams’s progress and wrap up the set himself instead, winning the fifth set point on offer.
By the third set, Gale had the wind at his back. He built more and more of a lead on the scoreboard, never dropping in his intensity despite the prospects of reaching the finishing line first looking ever more assured. This included a contender for the shot of the tournament in the fourth game of the set. After boasting the return of serve, Williams’s awkward volley looped up onto the penthouse and threatened to fall flush with the grille. Before letting the ball drop, Gale swung a full 180 degrees and smacked the ball directly at the back wall on the volley narrowly missing both the grille and his own head and muscling the ball up onto the high service wall. Williams put the next ball on the tambour but Gale lifted it into the dedans instead. From then, the rest of the set was all one-way traffic, Gale securing his maiden British Open quarter-final without dropping a game in the final set.
The second match of the day was between fifth seed Leon Smart and qualifier Will Flynn, who had come through Darren Long in an impressive first round performance. Playing in the second round for the first time, Flynn treated the match as a free hit, unafraid to play his shots. He mixed up his pace well, throwing in his trademark hard-hit force along with firm but controlled shots on the floor. Smart persisted with his signature high serve strategy, but Flynn was able to get enough width to boast into Smart’s forehand. The fifth seed was having difficulty with his forehand ball up the line, often finding the net or an error. Flynn, meanwhile, couldn’t miss a ball, picking backhands off the side wall with ease. From 2-all, he won the next six games including the first set in the process.
Smart started to find some counterplay, generating his own pace on the ball and looking to put Flynn under pressure rather than just taking last gallery at every opportunity. Flynn went through a poor patch, as Smart really started to get on top of him on the serve. The whole tenor of the match swung, with Flynn going from 2/0 up in the second set to losing the set without winning any further games.
The match swung again into the third set. Smart once again looked uncomfortable while Flynn was back into his purple patch. He was hitting his volley with aplomb again, finding a good balance between his force and his cut. His movement around the court was excellent, preventing Smart from laying chases and dominating from the service end. The set went by quickly, with Smart picking up just the single game.
Another twist was due by the fourth set, with Smart re-establishing control with a series of well-directed forces and drives, as well as getting the better of the longer rallies. He was also serving bobbles as a first serve which were restricting Flynn’s return of serve by keeping it tight to the back wall. He pushed on to a 5/2 advantage with the match seeming destined to head for a fifth set.
Flynn won the next game to love, at the time seemingly just prolonging the inevitable. Smart reached the first two of his set points in the 5/3 game, but was just pushing the ball around which allowed Flynn to see off both by playing a better floor game. Flynn slapped a dedans off the cut-volley to move to 4/5. In the next game, Flynn slotted a pair of last gallery chases but couldn’t defend either, giving Smart another set point which Flynn calmly tonked into the grille as Smart’s shot went high on the penthouse. Flynn saw off the fifth set point with a cross-court ball onto the tambour, before reaching the sixth with a hazard two chase to play. Smart read Flynn’s gallery shot and moved up the court to defend, placing the ball onto the tambour in a near certain winner but Flynn’s excellent hands managed to play a lob into the wide open dedans. Two further rallying errors from Smart and the score was 5-all.
In the deciding game, Smart earned a 40-15 lead — his seventh and eighth set points — but his play was too passive and Flynn brought the score back to deuce with another grille. From deuce, a rallying error from Smart then a high ball onto the penthouse gave Flynn the only opportunity he needed to finish the match, executing a well-directed ball onto the base of the tambour before throwing his fist in the air in celebration. It marks his first appearance in an Open quarter-final, and becomes the worst handicapped player — beating Andrew Fowler’s 3.5 in 2003 — since at least the introduction of computer handicaps in 2001, and first qualifier to reach a British Open quarter-final since at least the 1990s.
The third match of the day was between Josh Dodgson and Robert Fahey. Fahey was on a mission to complete the match as quickly as possible, hitting every variety of shot at the dedans that he could. The former world champion was in complete control of the match, as Dodgson struggled to find any serve that could trouble Fahey. Fahey’s play was inhuman, with his short, effective racket swing controlling the ball to wherever he wanted. His target hitting was relentless, averaging a ball into an opening once every two and a half minutes. One in three of his points came in dedans, grilles or winning galleries, with 17 dedans alone. Dodgson couldn’t really find any way to counteract Fahey’s determination, winning just three games across the hour-long match — by far the shortest match of the tournament so far.
The last match was between Bryn Sayers and Tony Hollins. Early in the match, Hollins was continuing where he left off the previous night against Ned Batstone with his positive, attacking strokeplay especially on the forehand volley. But Sayers grew into the match. reading the court and the play very well. From 3-all in the first set, Sayers broke away and never looked back. Sayers was ruthless and methodical, dismantling Hollins’s game with his relentless floor game. By the end, the players were going through the motions, with Sayers taking victory in an hour and a quarter.
The second round matches continued on Tuesday, with four further matches to be played before the doubles and women’s competitions get underway on Wednesday.
Match results:
12:00 PM: Levi Gale def Lewis Williams (8) 6/3 6/4 6/0
2:00 PM: Leon Smart (5) lost to Will Flynn 2/6 6/2 1/6 5/6
4:00 PM: Robert Fahey (4) def Josh Dodgson 6/2 6/0 6/1
6:00 PM: Bryn Sayers (7) def Tony Hollins 6/3 6/1 6/0
Order of play for Tuesday (all times GMT):
12:00 PM: Bertie Vallat vs Robert Shenkman (6)
2:00 PM: Henry Henman vs Nick Howell (2)
4:00 PM: John Woods-Casey vs Ben Taylor-Matthews (3)
6:00 PM: John Lumley (1) vs Claire Fahey