Camden Riviere has withdrawn from the British Open the night before the start of qualifying, resulting in a shake-up throughout the draw. The result was a cascade of rescheduled and redrawn matches affecting all rounds of the tournament, including freeing up space in the qualifying draw. The shake-up brought players off the waitlist for last-minute call-ups on a chaotic first day of play at Queen’s that saw the first batch of hopefuls progress into the second day of qualifying. Further withdrawals by Tim Chisholm, Ned Batstone and Rhys Williams caused the draw to be chopped and changed from its initial publication.
The British Open kicked off with the match between the home rackets professional James Medlow and the Oxford pro Nick Jamieson. Medlow settled in well, while Jamieson struggled. The latter was often beaten by the angles and the pace of the court, meaning Medlow just needed to ease the ball around and wait for Jamieson to make the mistake. The pressure of the situation immediately got to Jamieson, loudly berating himself for missing his shots, while Medlow was happy to let the show play out at the other end. Medlow won the match without dropping a game, finishing Jamieson’s British Open run barely half an hour after the tournament had begun.
Next, Archie Campbell from Radley received a late call off the waitlist to play Thomas Durack, part of a cascade of withdrawals that afflicted the British Open at the last minute. Despite the minimal preparation, Campbell looked immediately at home on the big stage. His left-handed volleys were able to pick off anything in the air and redirect it into a difficult area, even if Durack held the advantage in the rally. He pushed to a three-game lead before getting stuck at the hazard end. There, he was susceptible to Durack’s grille hitting, including a classy behind-the-back grille to draw into the lead. Durack had the experience to sit in and wait for Campbell’s error. By the second set, Durack’s slower serves were getting the better of Campbell, getting him to wide-boast his volley returns to feed Durack’s backhand. Campbell was induced into playing increasingly rash shots as the scoreboard pressure built, while Durack calmly dug in and let the games roll by. Durack won eleven straight games to take the match and move on to the second round of qualifying.
The matches kept coming, with local amateur Nick James taking on the Sydney professional Alexander Marino-Hume. James was determined to smack everything he could hard at the main wall. But Marino-Hume was up to the task, volleying everything back and eventually working the ball into a corner. When James didn’t have a boasting option, he went straight, though Marino-Hume had an answer for that as well. Marino-Hume’s counterplay was excellent, often able to turn a James attack into a Marino-Hume winner in barely a few strokes. He built a solid lead in the first set, but had difficulty finding the last few balls to close it out. James kept forcing, with increased success, with Marino-Hume searching for a big finish. Eventually he found it, playing off a hazard chase that he joked had fallen in the big green area. By the second set, Marino-Hume’s confidence returned. He dominated the service end by keeping the ball deep in the corners, earning himself a three-game lead. James battled back, using his force to pick off a couple of games and reduce the deficit to a single game. Yet Marino-Hume held his nerve, eventually getting two better than two not-up calls to go his way, which was enough to seal the second set and the match.
A break followed — one of the casualties of the reshuffle caused by the withdrawals. After the break, Hatfield’s James Law took on Seacourt’s Will Flynn, the latter playing in his first ranking-points tournament since turning professional. Law was unfazed by the pedigree of his opponent. He kept his serve short and kept his shots to a length, refusing to give Flynn anything on the back wall he could force. He held a narrow lead until Flynn figured out how to get points by targeting his left-handed backhand under the winning gallery. Though Law was able to push the set to 4-all, by then Flynn was accumulating points at a steady rate. He picked up several winning galleries on his way to the first set. At the start of the second set, Flynn gave away several unforced errors while trying to play soft drop shots into Law’s backhand. Law went ahead by two games as a result. Flynn had to fight hard to get even only for Law to push ahead by another two. Again, Flynn had to battle from behind, drawing level at 4-all before losing the serve and another game to Law. Law pushed ahead to 30-0 in the 5/4 game before Flynn, finally, hit a good run of form. He won the last eight points of the match, the only blemish being a narrow hazard chase in the middle.
Next, Holyport professional Alex Machin took on the Royal Tennis Court’s Philip Dunn. Dunn quickly settled into his signature drag serve, making life difficult for the left-handed Machin who tried to meet it with a cut-volley. Dunn took the first two games of the match as a result before getting bogged down in a long deuce battle in the third. After seven deuces, Machin registered his first game owing to a flush back wall. Dunn carried on, finding success picking off Machin’s backhand and taking the open targets whenever offered. He stormed through the rest of the first set without dropping another game.
Machin finally broke the pattern by winning the second game of the second set with some neat cut-volleys to beat chases. He carried on from there, knocking Dunn off his serving game by getting the ball to slide down the forehand side time and time again. He turned it into a three-game streak, broken by a drag-winning gallery from Dunn. It gave Dunn renewed confidence, attacking Machin into the corners and picking up four straight games of his own. One game away from losing the match, Machin launched a series of straight forces and drives in a last-ditch attempt to stay in the match. It picked up one game, but he found himself two match points down in the following game. The first, a half yard chase, was put high on to the penthouse, while Machin struck the outer edge of the grille to defend the second. He successfully forced the set into a deciding game, continuing his forcing to go 40-0 ahead. Though Dunn defended one set point, he put the next into the net as Machin completed a narrow escape.
Machin took the lead into the third set as Dunn’s all out attack yielded both winners and errors in equal measure. He pulled out a 3/1 lead quickly, but Dunn never gave in, refusing to give Machin an easy ride as the score levelled off at 3-all. Machin was particularly impressive on his forehand, generating pace and beating Dunn’s volley to halt Dunn’s run again. The next two games were evenly shared, with the match hinging on the narrow margins of every reste. Over the last two games, Machin kept his error rate low while hitting his best retrieving and serving runs of the match. It was enough to secure his progression to the second qualifying round for the first time in his career.
Into the evening, the next match was between Royal Tennis Court professional Jack Josephs and the amateur Oliver Taylor. The match quickly descended into a series of backhand exchanges, which favoured the server more often than not. Taylor held the server through the early phases of the first set and benefited from the play behind the tambour as a result. Taylor extended a two-game lead and had several points for 5/2 but Josephs started opening up to play his shots. Josephs won three straight games to go 5/4 ahead. Taylor then forced the set into a deciding game, using the service end’s advantage to win it to love and take the first set.
Josephs was determined to make an impact on the second set, opening up a two-game lead with hard-hitting shots and heavy cut. But he couldn’t sustain it, dropping the next four games, seemingly running out of ideas. Again, Taylor had several opportunities for a 5/2 lead but again couldn’t convert them. That gave Josephs a key reprieve, which he grasped by fighting for every ball and becoming a defensive wall. He battled to a 5/4 lead of his own, going 40-0 and having three set points. However, each was foiled by a poor return of serve, allowing Taylor to force a second deciding game of the match. This time, Josephs had the serve, allowing him to pick off Taylor’s return of serve and win the second set on the fifth attempt. Josephs carried his charge into the third set, winning game after game as the mistakes started to mount for Taylor. Josephs won the last set without dropping a game to secure his progression to the second round for the first time.
The last match of the evening was between the two Queen’s Club amateurs Charlie Defries and Jamie Giddins. The match was a battle between two underarm twists, trying to keep the ball short from the back wall and engaging in a floor rally as a result. Giddins was able to better manipulate the rally to his favour, helped by the fact he spent the bulk of the first part of the match at the service end. Any time Defries gave Giddins a ball off the back penthouse, Giddins was able to control it deep into Defries’s backhand to generate a short chase. Behind on the scoreboard, Defries tried some more expansive play but it didn’t pay off. Giddins led all the way through the first set, and although Defries was able to battle to 2-all in the second, Giddins was unfazed. Defries’s last chance came when he had a point to level the second set at 4-all — albeit on a worse-than-a-yard chase — but he couldn’t convert. Giddins secured his place in the second round to face Josephs.
Play continues on Thursday with the remaining singles qualifying matches. The doubles qualifying will take place on Friday, while the women’s qualifying will run on Monday. The main draw starts on Sunday.
Match results:
9:00 AM: Nick Jamieson lost to James Medlow 0/6 0/6
10:30 AM: Thomas Durack def Archie Campbell 6/4 6/0
12:00 PM: Nick James lost to Alexander Marino-Hume 3/6 4/6
1:30 PM: Ben Hudson def Rhys Williams w/o
3:00 PM: Will Flynn def James Law 6/4 6/5
4:30 PM: Philip Dunn lost to Alex Machin 6/1 5/6 4/6
6:00 PM: Jack Josephs def Oliver Taylor 5/6 6/5 6/0
7:30 PM: Charlie Defries lost to Jamie Giddins 2/6 3/6
Order of play for Thursday (all times GMT):
2:00 PM: Thomas Durack vs James Medlow
3:30 PM: Ben Hudson vs Alexander Marino-Hume
5:00 PM: Will Flynn vs Alex Machin
6:30 PM: Jack Josephs vs Jamie Giddins