Smart bows out with straight sets loss to Williams in US Open first round
Dodgson steals first set from Lumley but defending champion fights back strong
Leon Smart has ended his singles career as a real tennis professional with a straight-sets loss in the first round of the US Open to Lewis Williams at the Racquet Club of Chicago on Thursday. Meanwhile, the remaining seeds, Ben Taylor-Matthews, Bryn Sayers and John Lumley all secured progression despite periods of stiff opposition from their unseeded opponents.
Play resumed with the defending champion, John Lumley, kicking off his title defence with his first round match against Josh Dodgson. Dodgson was not too fussed about Lumley’s status, using his quick reaction and excellent touch to take time away from his usually incredibly quick opponent. Lumley was slow to adapt to the unusual pace of play,unable to turn the screws with his retrieving as he normally would expect to. Dodgson led through the first eight games of the first set, before Lumley started to settle. Ever the sportsman, Lumley corrected a scoring error in his favour turning down a set point and seeing the first set go to a deciding game instead. A few moments later, Dodgson walked away with a one set lead, thick-boasting a ball into the bottom of the backhand corner of the dedans.
Lumley stepped up the intensity from the start of the second set and Dodgson could not keep up. Dodgson tweaked his shoulder early in the set while trying to whip a forehand return on a ball that was cutting deep into the corner, immediately recoiling in pain. From then on, he was slightly more conservative in his play, while Lumley was in his element, scampering around the court and easily hunting everything down. As the match wore on, Dodgson fell away, winning just two further games over the next three sets, with Lumley fully firing by the end, securing his place in the quarter-finals.
The second match of the day had a student vs teacher vibe, with amateur Bertie Vallat challenging professional Bryn Sayers with both playing most of their tennis at Queen’s. The rallies were long and coy, with neither player willing to launch into a big force or a heavily-cut winner. Instead, they would play it out until eventually one player erred, either with a racket error or a ball onto the penthouse. The problem for Vallat was that the approach relied on him being able to consistently out-rally Sayers, which despite his raw talent is a skill he has not yet mastered. Sayers was steady, not fussed if he lost any of the micro-battles as he knew he had the skill and patience to be ahead overall.
Sayers won the first set easily, but the second proved a little more tricky. Sayers fell a little flat, with a few unforced errors seeping in, while Vallat kept battling away. The first stages of the second set were fairly even, with long deuce battles all the way to 4-all. But as he has done many times before, Sayers lifted for the last two games, looking to become a bit more expansive in his play. It paid off, with Vallat slamming the wall in frustration after he lost the set. Sayers carried the initiative into the third set, while Vallat finally fell away. Sayers won the final set easily, dropping just the single game as he secured his place in the quarter-finals.
His opponent would be either Ben Taylor-Matthews orFreddie Bristowe, who took to the court for the next match. Bristowe wasn’t going to leave any questions unasked, always looking for some kind of inroad into Taylor-Matthews’s game. Taylor-Matthews dug in to weather the initial storm, backing his ability to take the game deep if necessary. The first set was tight with Bristowe always staying within touching distance. Even at 3/5 down, Bristowe set two very short chases and looked like he would push the set to the wire. But Taylor-Matthews smacked two dedans in response, shutting Bristowe out of the set.
Those two shots awoke a spirit in Taylor-Matthews, switching into a more attacking mindset for the second set. Bristowe found himself on the back foot from the first ball in every rally. He had to scramble to stay alive, but had a knack of pulling out some unbeliveable winner from nowhere, throwing the real tennis textbook out the window in doing so. Even so, there were enough errors from Freddie and winners from Taylor-Matthews that the Westwood professional stayed a neck ahead through the second set. By the third set, Bristowe’s ability to hit his way out of trouble waned slightly, with Taylor-Matthews safely ensuring his progression.
The last match of the day was the swansong of Leon Smart as a real tennis professional, playing in his last ranking tournament before he hangs up his rackets and leaves the game for greener pastures in Michigan. Smart persisted with his regular high serve, encouraging Williams to try to blast the ball out of trouble with pace against the back wall. The resultant rallies were set up to be down the middle of the court, with both players smacking volleys at each other. When they did let it go to the back wall, there was plenty of cut on the ball with both players having to play the ball very close to the ground, making life difficult for the marker to call the ball up. With both players stylistically similar to each other, the first two sets were even most of the way through, with Williams coming up trumps both times.
Smart broke out the biggest lead in any set of the match at the start of the third, extending out a three game lead. Williams then started copying Smart’s serving tactics, tossing up spinless high serves and relying on the angle of the penthouse to cause the tightness to the back wall. He brought three games back, but Smart held out to have three set points in the 5/3 game and one in the 5/4 game. Williams saved all with some very tight bobble serves, sending the set to a decider instead. A lucky bounce off the penthouse helped Williams lay two short chases. Smart won one and lost one, before a controversial not-up call meant Williams had to go down the hazard end to beat a chase 2 rather than a hazard on match point. It didn’t matter as he slid it down the main wall to draw the racket error from Smart, bringing a close to the latter’s singles career with a straight-sets loss.
Smart is still active in the doubles alongside Robert Shenkman, and is also expected to play in the doubles-only US Super League event in New York later in the month.
Play continues on Friday with the four first round doubles matches. The singles quarter-finals will then follow on Saturday.
Match results:
12:00 PM: Josh Dodgson lost to John Lumley (2) 6/5 0/6 1/6 1/6
1:30 PM: Bertie Vallat lost to Bryn Sayers (8) 2/6 4/6 1/6
4:00 PM: Ben Taylor-Matthews (4) def Freddie Bristowe 6/3 6/4 6/3
5:30 PM: Leon Smart (6) lost to Lewis Williams 4/6 3/6 5/6
Order of play for Friday (all times CDT):
12:00 PM: Pete Dickinson & Ned Batstone vs Robert Shenkman & Leon Smart (5)
1:30 PM: Barney Tanfield & Freddie Bristowe vs Bertie Vallat & Darren Long
4:00 PM: Nino Merola & Lewis Williams (6) vs Vaughan Hamilton & John Woods-Casey
5:30 PM: Henry Henman & Max Trueman vs Jack Josephs & Zak Eadle