Smart's high serve beats Tanfield's forcing in tight US Open first round
Taylor-Matthews drops set to Bristowe in tough floor battle; Lumley and Howell progress untroubled
The main draw of the US Open got underway on Saturday with the first four pf eight round of 16 matches being played at the Westwood Country Club in Vienna, Virginia.
The match of the day was the first one on the schedule, featuring Leon Smart and Barney Tanfield. Smart stuck with his high serving strategy through most of the match, the only player to experiment with it at Westwood over the course of the tournament to date. He generally found a good length with it over the first two sets, restricting Tanfield’s forcing and making him boast back off the high service wall. It brought Smart immediately onto the offensive, as he looked to finish the points quickly before Tanfield could slap a ball tight onto Smart’s backhand. Smart passed through the first two sets untroubled.
Smart looked to be cruising at 4-2 in the third set, with the game seemingly minutes away from concluding until a few good forces from Tanfield on both the forehand and backhand ignted him back into the match. He followed it up with a triplet of grilles as Smart struggled to find any good way out of the rally. The targets now flowing for Tanfield, he brought it back to 4-all before a lengthy battle for the ninth game. Smart eventually came out on top, but Tanfield rattled off the next eight points to take the set. He couldn’t carry that momentum into the fourth set, though, as Smart continued milking his high serve strategy, reaching a 4-1 lead. Tanfield hit another good run of target hitting to bring the set back to 4-all and then 5-all. Tanfield looked to have the advantage in the deciding game with a 30-0 lead and two decent chases, but Leon was able to beat them both. Tanfield then narrowly missed a set point on a better than 2 chase, striking the back wall inches below the dedans that would likely have been in on any other court. Smart was then able to take the final set successfully defending chase better than 3
The second match saw second seed John Lumley playing against Josh Dodgson. Lumley was impressive through the third set, as one of few pros with competitive match experience at the Westwood court following the World Championship in 2023. He blitzed through Dodgson through the first set, chasing everything down into the corners. Dodgson came out in the second set playing his shots, taking the first game and nearly matching Lumley in retrieval. Dodgson lead through the first half of the set, but never built a solid break over Lumley. Dodgson had points for a 4-3 lead but Lumley was able to lift his game, hitting shots more cleanly and cutting down his errors. Lumley the charged through the remainder of the set. By the third, Lumley was back in complete control of the match. There wasn’t much Dodgson could do as Lumley eased his way through the final set.
The third match was between Nick Howell and Darren Long. Long had previously taken Howell to 5 sets at the 2023 British Open, but in this match there was no contest. Howell dominated the match from start to finish, demonstrating his form ahead of his home World Championship eliminator next month against Ben Taylor-Matthews. He played with freedom and ease, hitting winner after winner as Long struggled to engage in any long rallies. The Moreton Morrell professional had a day to forget with Howell moving through comfortably.
The last match was between Howell’s Eliminator opponent, Ben Taylor-Matthews, and the qualifier Freddie Bristowe. Taylor-Matthews demonstrated why he was the world number 4, playing faultless tennis with clean hitting throughout. He suckered Bristowe into engaging a floor game with him, but always seemed to get the better of it with his superior backhands. Taylor-Matthews finished a lot of the longer rallies into the openings, ringing the bells that had been strung up in each. He won the first two sets relatively comfortably.
Bristowe was more expansive in his shot selection going into the third set. The 2-all game lasted almost 20 minutes and saw some of the best tennis of the match, with plenty of changes of ends and long backhand exchanges. Bristowe took full advantage of all the angles of the court to take finally take the game. Bristowe rolled with the momentum to quickly move through the next 3 games as the set rapidly ran away from Taylor-Matthews. In the fourth set, Bristowe was absorbing Taylor-Matthews’s pressure well, as it became clear that the Bristol professional would need to do more than just tap it around to make progress in the match. He tightened up his game and started methodically working Bristowe over, winning the last four games in a row and moving on to a quarter final against Leon Smart.
Play continues on Sunday with the remaining first round matches, concluding with a rematch of the 2002 World Championship Challenge between Rob Fahey and Tim Chisholm.
Match results:
11:00 am: Leon Smart (7) def Barney Tanfield 6/4 6/2 5/6 6/5
1:00 pm: Josh Dodgson lost to John Lumley (2) 0/6 3/6 0/6
3:00 pm: Nick Howell (3) def Darren Long 6/1 6/0 6/1
5:00 pm: Freddie Bristowe (Q) Ben Taylor-Matthews (4) 1/6 0/6 6/2 2/6
Order of play for Sunday (all times EST):
10:00 am: Robert Shenkman (8) vs Nino Merola
12:00 pm: Lewis Williams vs Steve Virgona (6)
2:00 pm: Camden Riviere (1) vs Noah Motz (Q)
4:00 pm: Tim Chisholm vs Robert Fahey (5)