Sayers remains Taylor-Matthews' bogeyman reaching US Open semis for first time in a decade
Howell exacts revenge on Virgona for French Open loss
Bryn Sayers has qualified for his first US Open semi-final in 13 years, defeating Ben Taylor-Matthews for the 47th time in his career at the Racquet Club of Chicago on Saturday. Meanwhile, Nick Howell has knocked out French Open winner and local pro Steve Virgona, overturning the result from last September, while pre-tournament favourites Camden Riviere and John Lumley eased to comfortable victories.
The first singles quarter-final was between World Champion Camden Riviere and British Amateur Champion Robert Shenkman. Remarkably, it was just the second match played between the two top 10 players — the first being in the 2024 US Pro Singles at Newport. Despite the improvements that Shenkman had made to his game in recent months, his attacking weapons were still not mature enough to seriously trouble Riviere, who moved effortlessly around the court to cut everything off. From the service end, Riviere was getting plenty of joy out of his spinless, dead, high serve, making Shenkman have to bring his own energy to the ball. At the hazard end, Riviere was rolling in dedans, playing with plenty of disguise to prevent Shenkman getting into position to anticipate the shot. From both ends, Shenkman was desperately trying to stay alive in the rallies, unable to find counterplay. Riviere cruised to victory, dropping just two games along the way.
Riviere’s semi-final opponent would be one of Steve Virgona and Nick Howell, who played off in a rematch of the French Open final from earlier in the season. Howell had the better head-to-head record over recent matches, but Virgona was playing on his home court and had won their most recent encounter. The battle was intense, with lots of focus on the serving accuracy of each player. Howell opted for railroads, which at first weren’t tight enough, allowing Virgona to step inside and slap balls to the dedans. But they improved over time, with Howell finding his line and length and restricting Virgona more. Virgona was varying his serve up, opting for drags and demi-piques to try and restrict Howell’s forcing in return. Virgona took three of the first four games, making good use of the dedans in the process. But Howell warmed into the match, generally controlling the play well despite Virgona’s extravagant shot-making. A few minor errors seeped into Virgona’s game, allowing Howell to take the final five games and the first set.
The first phase of the second set was the tightest of the match, evenly exchanging games to reach 3-all. However, Howell broke away at the end, having plenty of success sliding balls deep into Virgona’s left-handed backhand corner. Virgona still struggled to find a serve to restrict Howell, as he slotted several dedans on the way to taking the set. Into the third, Howell had Virgona pinned to the hazard end. Howell had all of the initiative, putting ball after ball under the grille and asking Virgona to pull off some miracle get every time to scoop the ball back into play. Though he did more often than not, Howell’s patience was paying off, as the error or unplayable ball would come eventually. Virgona’s only two games in the final set came after he was already 0/5 down, with Howell reaching the semi-final for just the second time in his career having reachied the final of the 2020 edition.
In the bottom half of the draw, the third quarter-final saw Ben Taylor-Matthews play Bryn Sayers. Both players were happy to see the match quickly descend into a series of long backhand exchanges. The galleries were given a heavy workout, while the targets were largely ignored. It was positional and cautious, with neither player extending any significant lead in the set. Taylor-Matthews only started attacking the dedans when facing down three set points in the 4/5 game but it proved too little, too late to save the set.
The second set came purely down to shot execution. Taylor-Matthews kept searching for the narrow Chicago galleries, but sprayed the ball high and low instead. As a result, he got stuck at the hazard end for lengthy periods of time, while Sayers was able to pick off grilles and galleries with impressive regularity. Sayers built a 5/0 lead before Taylor-Matthews threw off the shackles once again and started playing his shots with more freedom. The extra positivity relieved his shooting woes, battling all the way back to 4/5 before Sayers could close out the set.
Such was the paucity of Taylor-Matthews target hitting through the match, that when he struck a grille early in the third set, he through his arms in the air in exasperated celebration. Even so, he battled back hard, tidying up the rest of his strokes and once again ran toe-to-toe with the steady and methodical Sayers. He pushed all the way to a deciding game. The game saw three points heavily feature the opening ledges — including to bring up Sayers’s first match point with a ball that struck the winning gallery ledge causing Taylor-Matthews to flick his racket into the net in disgust. A drive at the dedans and a cut-volley into the corner later, and Sayers had qualified for his first US Open semi-final since 2013.
The last quarter-final saw Lewis Williams take on defending champion John Lumley. For Williams, it was his first appearance in the quarter-final stage of the US Open. Lumley was lightning quick about the court, easily cutting off anything Williams could throw into the corners. Williams’s best theory of the case was to draw Lumley out of position then attack the dedans on the backhand side, but that was easier said than done. The points went by quickly, with Lumley exhibiting his all-around strengths and very few weaknesses. Even though Williams held his own as well as could be expected, he was largely outclassed by Lumley, who won the match while dropping only two games.
Play continues on Sunday with the four doubles quarter-finals, with the singles draw resuming on Monday evening for the two semi-finals.
Match results:
10:00 AM: Camden Riviere (1) def Robert Shenkman (7) 6/1 6/1 6/0
11:30 AM: Steve Virgona (5) lost to Nick Howell (3) 3/6 4/6 2/6
1:30 PM: Ben Taylor-Matthews (4) lost to Bryn Sayers (8) 4/6 4/6 5/6
3:00 PM: Lewis Williams lost to John Lumley (2) 1/6 1/6 0/6
Order of play for Sunday (all times CDT):
10:30 AM: Camden Riviere & Tim Chisholm (1) vs Henry Henman & Max Trueman
12:00 PM: Barney Tanfield & Freddie Bristowe vs Steve Virgona & John Lumley (2)
2:00 PM: Vaughan Hamilton & John Woods-Casey vs Ben Taylor-Matthews & Bryn Sayers (4)
3:30 PM: Nick Howell & Josh Dodgson (3) vs Robert Shenkman & Leon Smart (5)