Hamilton takes Howell to five in French Open quarter-final
Shenkman, Gale progress to their first Open semi-finals
French Open first seed Nick Howell has survived a quarter-final scare, having been taken to five sets by Vaughan Hamilton, playing in just his first quarter-final of his career. Meanwhile, Robert Shenkman and Levi Gale have reached their first Open semi-finals following wins in their quarter-finals. Steve Virgona’s quest for an elusive career grand slam remains alive following an action-packed day of tennis on Tuesday in Paris.
The quarter-finals began with first seed Nick Howell taking on first-time quarter-finalist Vaughan Hamilton. Unusually for a quarter-final, the match was played with brand new balls with proud seams that hadn’t been worn in through the pre-tournament practices. Hamilton adjusted to the conditions quicker, blasting away his back-foot forces as he moved to a 3/1 lead. Howell had to cut down the number of errors to slowly build his way back to 3-all. But Hamilton’s powerful volley drives kept him in the set while the condition of the balls introduced an element of randomness that fell in Hamilton’s favour as he pushed on to a 5/3 lead. Howell won the next game and was 40-0 up in the 5/4 game but Hamilton dug deep to go to deuce and then saw four set points come and go — the closest he came was with a force that was half-a-foot wide of the dedans. At the start of the eleventh game, Howell stopped playing mid-reste on a ball he assumed was down, but Hamilton lobbed a return to chase 9. Hamilton won the next four points to take the set.
Howell was not going to take the loss of the first set lightly. He tightened up his game going into the second set and started to press and attack rather than sit back and push the ball around. Hamilton’s forcing became more desparate as the scorebaord pressure started to bite. By the end, he gave a way a deliberate double fault to move on and focus on the third set. Once there, Hamilton was perfectly content in rallying with Howell, as the world number 3 found it difficult at times to find winners, whereas Hamilton backed his force to get him a chase, if not a dedans or a grille. After exchanging games to 2-all, Hamilton broke away, winning the next three games. In the 5/2 game, Hamilton saw six set points come and go as he searched for the final winner. It wasn’t until he feathered a ball past the tambour on the eighth set point two games later before he converted into a 2-1 lead.
Howell regained control of the play at the start of the fourth set, now serving high serves instead of railroads with some success. Both player’s target counts were rising steadily towards the thirties as hitting and opening was one of few ways to end a rally, with Howell winning a third of his points in the set by hitting targets. The fifth and final set was all one way traffic, with Hamilton having long since run out of ideas and Howell proving the dominant player his world ranking suggests he is. A couple of late games from Hamilton couldn’t prevent a much relieved Howell from progressing to the semi-finals after three hours of play.
Next on, Benedict Yorston made his Open quarter-final debut against Steve Virgona. Yorston’s primary tactic was to make himself as much of a pest as he possibly could, extending the rallies as long as possible, thus making Virgona have to hit one more winner than he would like, even if Yorston couldn’t produce many winners of his own. Yorston also reached deep into the lesser read volumes of the serving textbooks in an attempt — somewhat successfully — to prevent Virgona from turning on return and blasting it into the dedans. Despite it all, Virgona was not bothered, calmly going about his business of racking up points on the scoreboard with precision and an unrelenting ruthlessness. Yorston managed three games over the course of the match, with Steve Virgona advancing to another semi-final.
The third quarter-final pitted Robert Shenkman against Darren Long, both looking to reach a semi-final of an Open for the first time. Shenkman was not content to push the ball around into the corners as he might have done in years past, instead looking to drive the ball hard and low or smack the ball at the grille or dedans. Despite Long being renowned as a target hitter, Shenkman’s defense kept him at bay through the first set.
By the second set, Long joined in on the driving-for-the-nick tactic, and so began a merry-go-round of gallery length or hazard chases being set and played. Even hitting for the grille was risky as anything that missed low bounced out into the hazards. The players exchanged games through the set until the 5/4 game where Long reached set point, with a chase 14 to play. Shenkman defended desparately, but couldn’t put it away in the grille. Instead, Long charged up the court and hit a killer volley to win the chase and the set.
Into the third set, Shenkman was frustrated at getting sucked into Long’s play style, as he began looking for expansive shots that were not there to be struck. After quickly going 0/2 down, Shenkman entered a rebuilding phase, reaffirming his fundamentals and melding the rallies into his preferred style. Long was firing bullet after bullet at Shenkman but the amateur champion was happy to soak them all up. Shenkman won 5 of the next 6 games but couldn’t convert his set point at 5/3 up. Long battled back to send the set to a decider. Long hit some of the hardest forces of the night to reach set point himself, but Shenkman destroyed Long’s railroad that was threatening to fall for a fault. Once Shenkman recovered the serve, he sealed the set with a tight railroad Long could only tickle onto the net tape, losing the chase. By the fourth set, Shenkman was in complete control again, while Long was playing desparate hit-and-hope. Shenkman won the set comfortably, securing his first ever Open semi-final.
The final quarter-final was between long-time friends, rivals and doubles partners Lewis Williams and Levi Gale. Gale was unstoppable through the first set, winning all but two points across the first four games. His railroad was hitting a perfect length and, as Williams was taking the return after the back wall, he could never get any decent power or control on it. To top it off, Gale served a winning gallery railroad — the third of the tournament — to go 5/0 up in the first set.
Williams didn’t win his first game until the ninth game of the match, and from that moment on the match was a tight contest. Gale’s railroad dropped off slightly, with Williams able to boast the wall away at the top of its arc. The players exchanged games throughout the set until they reached a deciding game. Gale’s forces came good as he won it to love. Williams got the better of the exchanges in the third set, able to ping away at his force and extract severe top-spin out of the corners and catching Gale out of position. Williams built a 3/1 lead but Gale kept plugging away at the deficit. He won the 4 of the next 5 games before seeing a match point at 5/4. Williams fended it off, and sent the set to another decider. Playing a second gallery chase, Williams hit the grille bandeau, sending Gale forward to cover the miss. Williams, covering the galleries, was out of position for the volley, sending it into the net and Gale into a scream of delight.
Wednesday will see the commencement of the doubles tournament, with three matches to be played as the number one seeds Nick Howell and Steve Virgona will receive a bye. The singles draw will resume on Thursday with the semi-final matches.
Match results:
12:00 PM: Nick Howell (1) def Vaughan Hamilton 5/6 6/1 4/6 6/2 6/3
2:00 PM: Benedict Yorston lost to Steve Virgona (2) 0/6 1/6 2/6
4:00 PM: Darren Long (6) lost to Robert Shenkman (4) 1/6 6/4 5/6 2/6
7:00 PM: Levi Gale def Lewis Williams (5) 6/0 6/5 6/5
Order of play for Wednesday (all times CEST):
11:00 AM: Henry Henman & Will Flynn vs Vaughan Hamilton & Bertie Vallat
1:00 PM: Jack Josephs & Benedict Yorston vs Lewis Williams & Levi Gale
3:00 PM: Max Trueman & Baudouin Huynh-Lenhardt vs Robert Shenkman & Leon Smart (2)