Howell and Taylor-Matthews split honours on Day 1 of World Championship Eliminator
2-2 result guarantees play will continue into third day for first time since 2016
Nick Howell and Ben Taylor-Matthews have ended the first day of their World Championship Eliminator with honours even following a clash of styles at the Aiken Tennis Club on Tuesday evening.
Howell had outbid Taylor-Matthews for the hosting rights for the First Round Eliminator, making the format a best of 13 set match played over up to three days at Howell’s home court of Aiken. This contrasts to the ongoing Lumley vs Virgona Eliminator, which is being played as a home-and-away series of best of 5 set matches. The Aiken crowd were therefore guaranteed to see exactly four sets over the first day.
The matchup was a repeat of the same fixture two years ago in 2023, with the same combatants and the same venue, though that match was a best of 9 set contest. That week, Howell had been the victor in a match lasting 7 sets. Their only meeting since has been the final of the 2024 Champions Trophy, which also went to Howell in the third set of a best of 3 fixture.
Marker Ivan Ronaldson from Westwood Country Club was doing all he could to keep the boisterous Aiken crowd from making noise during the restes, helped by his cousin Matty Ronaldson as the assistant marker. They cheered every point won by Howell with great enthusiasm, though there was noticably more support for Taylor-Matthews than two years prior.
The early exchanges of the match were all about power. Both players were launching balls at the dedans from all over the court with the ball moving at a rapid pace. Howell’s forcing proved more potent than Taylor-Matthews, building an early lead in the first set. Taylor-Matthews was the first to change tactics, testing out a few high serves trying restrict Howell’s straight volley, before settling on a wider railroad. The tighter serves meant Howell wasn’t getting an immediate advantage in the rally, allowing Taylor-Matthews to start moving Howell into the corners. The longer the rallies went, it was more likely that Taylor-Matthews would find the grille or benefit from a Howell error. From 1-4 down, Taylor-Matthews slowly pulled his way back into the set, winning five very tight games in a row to take the first set.
Howell took the loss of the first set in his stride and doubled down on his tactics going into the second. This time, though he spent more time at the service end and generally tightened up his game all around. He made less unforced errors, put less balls on the penthouse and was able to turn the longer rallies to his advantage more easily. Taylor-Matthews was a little off pace through the set, as Howell quickly tallied up five straight games on his way to an easy set victory.
The momentum swung again going into the third set. Taylor-Matthews was now serving more demi-piques, tempting the cut-volley then hoping to get a good entry into the rally from the third stroke. When the return was not good, he backed his defensive volley to get him out of trouble which it did more often than not. He won the first four games of the set, before encountering some tougher resistance from Howell. Despite Taylor-Matthews building a comfortable lead in the set, it was built on a foundation of fine margins, including one rally where Taylor-Mattehws hit the top and bottom ledges of the dedans, only for Howell to ricochet the response off the bottom ledge of the grille and out for a hazard. The Bristol professional wrapped up the set with a comfortable-looking scoreline of 6/1.
The players took an extended break leading into the final set of the night. Once again, Howell’s tactics still remainded largely unchanged, looking for the force at every opportunity. Taylor-Matthews had succesfully dampened the effect of the Aiken crowd owing to the state of the scoreboard. Instead, the away player’s gallery was vocal and at times matching the rest of the crowd for volume. Howevere, once Howell had wrestled back a small 4-3 lead, the Aiken faithful roared back to life, at this point now well lubricated by the bar of the Aiken Tennis Club.
The set was the tightest of the match just far, with neither player getting a long run of play. It was perhaps a fairer reflection of the match as a whole than the scorelines in the earlier sets. The players exchanged games throughout the set with neither building any lead of note. Both now had all their cards on the table, tactically speaking, so the decisive factor was to see who could execute their shots most effectively. That player would be Nick Howell, capitalising on a number of slight inaccuracies in Taylor-Matthews’s play late in the set and applying the pressure at exactly the right moment. Howell locked in the set, guaranteeing that the match would head to a third day for the first time in an Eliminator since 2016.
Attention now turns to Philadelphia tomorrow night, where John Lumley will be looking to secure his spot in the Final Eliminator for the second time following his straight sets victory against Steve Virgona in his away leg of their three match home-and-away series. Play will resume in Aiken on Thursday.
Match results:
John Lumley leads Steve Virgona 1-0 in the three match series
Match 1 (Chicago): 6/1 6/4 6/3
Nick Howell tied with Ben Taylor-Matthews 2-2 in the best of 13 set match:
Day 1 (Aiken): 4/6 6/1 1/6 6/4
Upcoming matchdays (Check streaming links for match timings):
March 26 & 28 (Philadelphia): John Lumley vs Steve Virgona (Matches 2 and 3)
March 27 & 29 (Aiken): Nick Howell vs Ben Taylor-Matthews (Best of 13 sets)