Merola qualifies for Champions Trophy main draw saving 3 match points
Hamilton progresses after receving walkover from Williams
Nino Merola and Vaughan Hamilton have qualified for the main draw of the Champions Trophy, following the second day of play at the Royal Tennis Court on Wednesday. Hamilton progressed without having to play a ball after receiving a walkover from Lewis Williams, while Merola did things the hard way, having to battle two difficult matches across the course of the day, saving multiple match points against Will Flynn.
The first match of the day was between Nino Merola and Will Flynn. Both players had different objectives going into the match. Merola was undefeated on the first day, and saw the match as a stepping stone ahead of a match-up against the other undefeated player in the group, Darren Long. Flynn, meanwhile, had lost to Long on Tuesday, so needed victory to try and mix up the results in the group. The play was characterised by defensive serving, as each player was weary of strength of their opponent’s returns, be it on the force or the cut volley. Flynn’s deft touch and dramatic variations in pace took him to within touching distance of a four-game lead, while Merola struggled to perfectly execute his winners. But Merola worked his way back into the match, cutting down his errors and finding success with his wider serves. They battled through 5-all, then 6-all, after Merola had to shake off the disappointment of a grille call having gone against him. The serve dominated the latter stages of the match, with Flynn going 8/7 up. Merola stuck in with some brilliant retrieval around the angles of the tambour, sending the match into a deciding game.
Flynn opened the game with a series of heavy boasts that eventually missed the grille, with Merola leaping in the air to let the ball fall between his legs and out for a hazard. Unsighted, he looked to the galleries for confirmation that it hadn’t fallen a stroke. The next ball he put to the grille elicited a volley error from Merola, before striking the following ball cleanly into the square target. Changing ends with two match points and a hazard chase, Merola landed a nick railroad. On the next, Flynn picked off last gallery from a poor underarm twist. Back at the hazard end, Merola’s force skipped over the net tape, picking up extra spin and beating Flynn around the angles. After Merola nailed a cut-volley into the floor by his feet, Flynn had another match point, but it was Merola’s turn to find the galleries. Merola again kept his railroad tight, forcing Flynn to boast out of trouble on every subsequent ball before Merola could find the winner. Merola brought up his own match point by jamming Flynn on the tambour, winning the match with a ball hitting the nick under the grille on the second bounce.
In the other group, Lewis Williams lined up against Benedict Yorston, both having failed to win a match on the first day of qualifying. Yorston was able to absorb everything that Williams had to throw at him, helped by the bouncy nature of the court. The pressure started to suffocate Williams for ideas and starve him for chases. After Williams won the first two games of the match, Yorston won the next five, with dogged retrieval sapping all of the energy of the match. At 6/3 to Yorston, Williams called for an injury timeout, returning with a calf sleeve. After Yorston won the first game after the resumption, his concentration wavered. A few unforced errors started seeping into his play, letting Williams back into the match. The World Number 10 slowed down the match, keeping the points short, finding the grille on a regular basis, and serving slow and high to force Yorston into generating pace. Williams brought it back to 7-all. Yorston finally broke the run with some good floating balls around the grille. Both players were targeting last gallery incessantly, putting the match into a second consecutive deciding game.
Yorston put the first rally of the last game in to the last gallery. Williams responded with a flush high serve; Yorston’s scooping return was called a carry by the marker. The second was almost as good, but Yorston was able to get enough room to boast onto the wall in front of the tambour and draw the error. Yorston then punished a missed grille with a short chase. Changing ends, Yorston defended the chase with a long, nagging rally in his signature style. Williams left his own mark too, beating the better than a yard chase with a force into the dedans. Two points away from the match, Yorston framed a volley over for a hazard chase, before bringing up match point by tagging Williams off the tambour. Yorston beat the hazard chase by chipping the ball into the first galleries and spreading his arms in celebration.
The next match was the dead rubber fixture between Claire Fahey and Will Flynn, with both having lost their two earlier matches. In contrast to the previous match, the restes was fast and frenetic, with both players trying to finish points quickly either by winning length or winning openings. Though fortune helped her over the line in the first two games, Fahey was clinical thereafter, winning the next three unchallenged. Flynn started to then mount a fightback, looking to hit winners where possible. The next five games were exchanged evenly, but Fahey’s strong start still proved decisive. It brought her maiden Champions Trophy victory, even though she did not progress.
With the news filtering through that Williams had withdrawn from the final match of the day, awarding the group win to Vaughan Hamilton, the next match between Benedict Yorston and Zak Eadle would be a dead rubber. Eadle was not keen to engage in Yorston’s long rallies, looking for a winner wherever possible. The risk-reward payoff meant that for every winner he hit, he gave away an easy shot, with the players exchanging games through the first half of the match. The match came to a crux in the 6/5 game — a tight deuce battle — with Eadle starting to wind up the pace of his forces. Eadle pushed on, reaching an 8/5 lead before Yorston nagged his way back into contention. He brought it all the way back to 7/8, but it wasn’t enough to save the match.
The last match of the day was a live rubber between Nino Merola and Darren Long. Both came into the match undefeated, with the match winner moving into the main draw as the group winner. Across the first two games, Long was firing in difficult railroads, putting Merola’s cut-volley under strain. From the hazard end, he was finding the range on his force, testing Merola’s defensive volley as well. He took the first two games before Merola took the pace out of his serves, eventually settling on a slow, central railroad. It worked a charm, at least initially, notching up five straight games as Long took his time adapting to having to bring the pace himself. Eventually he did, smashing seemingly every ball at the dedans as he brought the scoreline back to 5-all. Merola was forced to change his serve again, moving to a pique, landing the ball on the service line with remarkable precision. Long had no choice but to chip it to Merola’s backhand, giving the Radley professional an opening in the rallies. Merola pushed on, securing qualification for the main draw for the second time in his career.
After the match, the two group winners were drawn into their main draw matches, with Merola to play Bryn Sayers and Hamilton to play Robert Shenkman. The top four seeds will each play against each other in their quarter-finals with a second-chance available for the losers. The first of the quarter-finals will take place at the commencement of the main draw on Thursday.
Match results:
1:30 PM: Nino Merola def Will Flynn 9/8
2:30 PM: Lewis Williams lost to Benedict Yorston 8/9
3:30 PM: Will Flynn lost to Claire Fahey 2/9
4:30 PM: Benedict Yorston lost to Zak Eadle 7/9
5:30 PM: Nino Merola def Darren Long 9/5
6:30 PM: Lewis Williams lost to Vaughan Hamilton w/o
Group A Standings:
Vaughan Hamilton (played 2, won 2, 1 walkover)
Zak Eadle (played 3, won 2)
Benedict Yorston (played 3, won 1)
Lewis Williams (played 2, won 0)
Group B standings:
Nino Merola (played 3, won 3)
Darren Long (played 3, won 2)
Claire Fahey (played 3, won 1)
Will Flynn (played 3, won 0)
Order of play for Saturday:
1:30 PM: Bryn Sayers (6) vs Nino Merola (Q)
2:45 PM: Robert Shenkman (5) vs Vaughan Hamilton (Q)
5:30 PM: Nick Howell (1) vs Robert Fahey (3)
6:45 PM: Ben Taylor-Matthews (2) vs Steve Virgona (4)
Let’s go Nino!!