The Eastern Open has continued to provide a glimpse of the future of real tennis, with Vaughan Hamilton and Henry Henman both recording upset victories in the semi-finals at Cambridge on Saturday. It including a rare defeat of the former World Champion Robert Fahey by Hamilton that saw him save two match points, including on a two-yard chase.
The first semi-final was between Prested’s Vaughan Hamilton and Oratory’s Robert Fahey. Fahey was the clear favourite going into the match and wanted to stamp his authority from the start, striking the dedans with the very first hit of the ball. He carried on testing Hamilton’s reactions over the following games, beating him on the volley and keeping the restes short. His own volleying was belligerent, hitting the strings clean and sending Hamilton to dive into the corners to fetch it. He went from 1-all to 3/1 without dropping a point. Hamilton then started to dig in, often getting into good positions in the reste but then running into some outlandish stroke from Fahey that put him back on the defensive. Hamilton’s match kickstarted with a ‘tweener winning gallery to win his second game, bringing the set back to 3/4. Even though Hamilton was doing the bulk of the serving, Fahey was unbothered, reading the court well and dialling up the pressure with every stroke, winning the last two games to take a one-set lead.
Fahey kept the pressure on through the first phases of the second set. However, Hamilton’s resistance started to grow, even if he was struggling to find a winner on the slow and bouncy court, whereas Fahey was still dictating play, mostly from the hazard end. He led 4/2 in the set and had victory in sight, but Hamilton had other ideas. His drives at the back wall and cut shots into the corners helped him claw the scoreline back to 4-all. Fahey took the following game, putting him one away from victory. Hamilton had to play at full stretch to stay alive, playing some of his best restes yet still found himself at the hazard end, match point down and attacking a two-yard chase. Fahey’s demi-pique sat up off the back wall, giving Hamilton an opportunity to force straight. Fahey left it, only to watch it, barely, strike the back netting of the dedans. He got lucky two restes later as well: Fahey had a ball that he was lined up to strike for a winner but it spun the wrong way into the door gallery. Hamilton now had the serve, using it to force a deciding game.
Fahey kept forcing, going 30-15 up with two chases. The first, Hamilton defended with a full-stretch double-handed backhand volley into the dedans. The second, playing worse than 3, was a tense rally including a high lob that ended with Fahey jammed against the battery wall. Hamilton hit a sky ball on his first set point, with Fahey sending the game to deuce. Hamilton had another set point which Fahey swatted away with a cut-volley to beat a chase. Fahey then had another match point, but his force hit the top of the lowest part of the net. Hamilton struck a grille to give him his third set point. Fahey had a ball on his forehand which he opted to leave to the back wall only for it to die behind him. Hamilton had secured the set by the barest of margins.
Fahey removed his overgrip for the third set, and, once play resumed, went on a belligerent forcing streak. Five minutes into the set, he already had a 3/0 lead. It took Hamilton off guard, but he had to quickly scramble a defence. Fahey started to overreach, both marginally dropping his precision and becoming vulnerable to Hamilton’s counterattacks. Hamilton battled back to 3-all, getting there with another ‘tweener winner, but Fahey’s barrage never ceased. By 4-all, both players were at their limit trying to keep the rally going. Fahey had a couple of chances to go 5/4 ahead but couldn’t convert, with Hamilton going ahead in the match for the first time instead. The tenth game was nervy, but Hamilton brought up match point with a dedans, going down the service end to defend a half-yard chase. Fahey couldn’t repeat Hamilton’s feat from the second set, hitting his second attempted dedans low. Hamilton’s win put him through to the final, registering his first win over the former World Champion. It was Fahey’s first loss in Cambridge in this century, having played 31 prior times.
The second semi-final was another Prested against Oratory affair: fourth seed Levi Gale played eighth seed Henry Henman. Henman had the better start, winning the first ten points of the match. Gale had to fight to get his game started, taking the third game after a fifteen-minute deuce duel, while the fifth took another twelve minutes. The play was scrappy, with plenty of stretching into the corners and boasting out of trouble. Gale started to get on top of the play, controlling the serve despite Henman’s strong cut-volley. The Oratory pro was just seeking to play out the rally, opting to take the occasional long chase via a hard drive rather than take a gallery. Gale went 4/3 ahead, with several points for 5/3 that he couldn’t convert. However, he did pull ahead in the following game, with Henman trying to dig a ball out of the galleries with a left-handed volley that left him wondering if he had cracked his racket. Henman instead sent the set to a deciding game, with Gale unable to put away several high penthouse balls. Henman struck two dedans and a cut-volley to reach set point. Gale dug out the next cut-volley and put it towards the grille. Henman framed a volley to just go over the net, pulling Gale forward and out of position. Henman then lobbed the ball back over Gale, padel-style, who couldn’t pull off another volley while running backwards. Henman raised a fist in the air in celebration of the set and gave Gale a stare-down as he prepared for the second.
Henman was growing increasingly confident on the Cambridge Blue court, reading the play better and better and hitting harder and harder to overcome its slower pace. He was in control of the rallies, finding the tambour readily from the service end and using it to push Gale around the court. Gale took the third game of the set with a tight ball on the wall that made Henman lose his racket, but it would be the only game he would win. Henman’s service end play was enough to shut Gale out of the remainder of the match. Henman’s win puts him into his first senior final — his only other tournament finals have either been in age category events or for neo-pros.
The event concludes on Sunday with the final between Hamilton and Henman — a rematch of the recent Ivan Ronaldson Trophy final from the summer.
Match results:
12:30 PM: Robert Fahey (1) lost to Vaughan Hamilton (3) 6/3 5/6 4/6
2:00 PM: Levi Gale (4) lost to Henry Henman (8) 5/6 1/6
Order of play for Sunday (all times GMT):
1:30 PM: Vaughan Hamilton (3) vs Henry Henman (8)