Former champions fall at final hurdle as Howell and Smart reach doubles final
Merola hex curses Riviere for a third time
Doubles semi final day at the British Open did not disappoint, with two of the most exciting and dramatic matches of the tournament. With the matches taking a combined 6 hours, the top two seeds ultimately progressed but they were strongly challenged, with Camden Riviere dropping sets to Nino Merola for the third time in three meetings, while former World Champions Steve Virgona and Rob Fahey came one game away from setting up a match against the current World Champions.
The first match of the day was a much anticipated semi final between Rob Fahey and Steve Virgona against Nick Howell and Leon Smart. Fahey was much less restricted in his movement than during his quarter final match, but still opted to man the galleries and let Virgona do the bulk of the legwork behind him. Virgona launched an all out assault on the winning gallery throughout the first set, attacking it so often it brought Smart up to defend it at times, forcing Howell to cover more ground when the ball went to the tambour. One towards the end of the set saw a force ricochet off the bottom ledge of the dedan which Virgona chased down, slapping into the winning gallery while cartoonishly wobbling on the edge of the ball tray trying not to touch the net until the ball was dead inside the netting. Virgona and Fahey maintained an advantage throughout the set and accelerated towards the end, taking it 6/3.
Howell and Smart stole the initiative at the start of the second, builing out a 4/1 lead by cutting down their errors and benefiting from a few at the other end of the court. Fahey and Virgona steadied the ship, gradually bringing the match back to 4-all on the back of some tighter serving by Virgona. Howell and Smart had a set point at 5/4 on a 2 and 3 chase but could not convert, then a main wall to winning gallery boast while standing at chase the door from Fahey brought them back to 5-all. It would take another two set points for Howell and Smart to finish the set, taking it on a Virgona error looking to go down the line and finding the highest part of the net. Both pairs won exactly 40 points in the set, demonstrating just how close it was.
Howell and Smart had the better of the serving end through bulk of the third set, enough to hold on to a lead throughout. Fahey’s movement had less space to hide at the hazard end, exposing a weakness in the former World Champion’s play. Smart was proving capable of holding his own at the highest level, the experience of recent French Open finals proving vital. Meanwhile, Howell was patrolling anything in the air very well, refusing to let much go to the back wall. Howell won the set point with a straight drive at the dedans.
The fourth set was dominated by runs at the service end. Howell and Smart won the first three games, putting a spot in the final within reach. They then lost the serve as Virgona and Fahey went on a four game run to take the lead. All players were giving their all as the set wound towards its conclusion. Howell forced their way through the next two games bringing up two match points in the 5/4 game, thwarted by a frame width on a Virgona volley. Instead, Virgona and Fahey struck the dedans and then took the 5-all game to love, putting it into a fifth set.
The first five games of the final set were shared evenly, until the sixth which went the way of Virgona and Fahey on the back of a Virgona charge at the hazard galleries to successfully defend a chase of the line facing a hard hit shot from Howell. The adrenaline of that shot gave Virgona a rush, finding an extra yard of pace and calling Fahey off shots that were hit straight to him as the former World Champions took a 5/2 lead. The saga had yet another twist, with Howell and Smart winning the next three games as Fahey and Virgona kept finding the penthouse.
The final game began with a long rally with every player boasting until Virgona struck a worse than 6 chase. Fahey then cut-vollet Smart’s serve to lay a 1 and 2 chase taking the serve. Howell called Smart off on the first chase and smacked a straight dedans over Fahey’s head, while a tight Fahey serve on the second chsae left Smart attempting a hopeful lob volley. The next ball caught the gallery bandeau, sending Virgona across the court to chase it down and striking Virgona’s foot for a stroke. Fahey brought it to 30-all with an excellent volley but conceded a third match point on a volley error. Fahey saved the match point with three further cross court volleysdrawing the error from Howell. Howell then forced a ball through Fahey to bring up another match point, before Fahey struck a hazard chase on the volley. Virgona had chances to attack the hazard chase off the back penthouse but couldn’t deliver, as Howell struck a winning point down the middle of the court that Fahey couldn’t chase down. Howell dropped his racket and raised his arms in the air in celebaration of a 3 and half hour epic.
Nino Merola and Ben Taylor-Matthews took the game to Tim Chisholm and Camden Riviere from the start of the second semi final. Merola was striking the ball very well, winning several volley exchanges with Chisholm and taking on the volley force aginst Riviere. Riviere and Chisholm couldn’t execute their shots as well as they normally might, letting Merola and Taylor-Matthews keep pace with the World Champions through much of the set. The British pair had the run of the last two games, Taylor-Matthes winning the set by sliding the ball into the dedans. With the shot, Merola made history by taking sets off Riviere in each of their three meetings, having one one set in both their singles and doubles matches in 2023.
By the second set, Chisholm and Riviere dialled in the artillery on the dedans, with Merola dropping back to help Taylor-Matthews muster a defence. The line buckled giving the Americans an opening which they rushed like they were breaking the seige of Yorktown. The Brits could no longer match the intensity brought by Chisholm and Riviere as they raced from 2-all to winning the set 6/2.
The start of the third set saw plenty of long rallies with the Brits stuck at the hazard end unable to find chases with Riviere employing a series of overhead smashes at their feet. They did manage to string a few games together once they recovered the serve, but Riviere and Chisholm ran away with a 5/2 lead. The Brits defended their first two set points, then counterpunched with a couple of straight dedans to roll through a couple of games and put more pressure on the Americans. They had another set point at 5/4, but couldn’t attack a chase 3. The deuce exchange that followed saw some of the most intense rallies of the match, until Taylor-Matthews stepped up with two big main walls to take it to 5-all. Upon bringing up their fourth match point, Riviere let out a big “come on,” followed by an even bigger celebration upon winning it.
The Brits were consided to doing most of the work in the fourth set from the receiving end, in front of an increasing vocal and partisan late night Queen’s crowd. There was a sizable contingent of Middlesex University students in the upper galleries cheering on every good shot by Merola and Taylor-Matthews to the increasing ire of Chisholm. The Americans looked like sweeping through the match, with three match points in the 5/3 game which Merola brushed aside with some excellent forcing. A run from the service end followed, with Taylor-Matthews hitting a rare grille to bring the set to 5-all. A few tense shots causing errors from Merola gave the World Champions two more match points. Conceding a hazard second gallery, Merola brushed aside the tension saving both sending it to deuce. Chisholm set the next out of court, giving the Brits a set point, but Taylor-Matthews couldn’t return the ball from the tambour. A second set point to the Brits followed on chase second gallery, which Merola put into the net. Taylor-Matthews was searching for a backhand winning gallery at the third deuce, but ended up conceding two short chases. The final match point was an epic rally on chase 3 and 4 but ended with a ball from Chisholm bobbling over the net.
Match results:
2:00 pm Rob Fahey & Steve Virgona (3) lost to Nick Howell & Leon Smart (2) 6/3 5/6 3/6 6/5 5/6
4:00 pm Camden Riviere & Tim Chisholm (1) def Ben Taylor-Matthews & Nino Merola (4) 4/6 6/2 6/5 6/5
Order of Play for Monday:
6:00 pm Camden Riviere (1) vs Nick Howell (2)