Sweating court delays Riviere’s advance as semi final concludes on West Court
Howell volleys his way to victory over Smart to reach maiden British Open final
For the second year running the great enemy of the British Open has been the court sweating at Queen’s following a large temperature differential between the atmosphere and the court. The moisture struck midway through the second semi final between Camden Riviere and Ben Taylor-Matthews as the match was forced into the West Court.
Nick Howell put in a dominant performance over the sixth seed Leon Smart in the first semi final of the day. Howell found a good length on his serve, putting Smart under pressure from the start. His stand-out was his return of serve volley, disguising well between a hard drive at the main wall dedans, a down the line dedans and a cut into the forehand corner. Smart served high serves for the bulk of the first two sets, but struggled to find a length that troubled Howell. In the first set he was only winning one in four serves, much below the typical 55%. He cycled through his repertoire but never found anything effective, trying out railroads, demi-piques, wide bobbles, full piques, underarm twists and a couple of caterpillars. None seemed effective as Smart grew increasingly irate at his perceived inability to read anything out of the corners. Howell cruised to a comfortable straight sets victory booking his spot in his first ever British Open final.
“Super chuffed to make my first British Open final, was a big goal of mine as it was the last Open final, singles or doubles, I hadn’t made,” said Howell. “My return of serve has been really strong this week, it’s got me out of a lot of trouble. Definitely struggling with some rhythmn in the first two matches with a bit of the form and the volleys, but today was much cleaner and felt in control. Leon’s a dangerous player so I knew he was going to come back at some point in that third set. I was just trying to play one point at the time and hopefully I’d be the winner by the end.”
World Champion Camden Riviere was at his brilliant best through the first set against Ben Taylor-Matthews. Everything that came off his racket was golden, putting Taylor-Matthews to the sword with his characteristically excellent retrieving and stroke play. The set lasted just 19 minutes with Taylor-Matthews winning only 11 points.
At the start of the second set, the players raised their first concerns about the grip at the receivers end. Play was deemed fine to continue, as the players continued through the first three games of the set. At 2/1 in the second, Riviere stopped play as it was unsafe to continue due to the court starting to sweat. The temperatures in London were rising rapidly compared to the previous week causing there to be a temperature differential between the court snd the air, with rain outside adding to the humidity. The players left the court for 20 minutes as the court was wiped dry. Play resumed for three further games, before coming off a second time. This break was much shorter, as the surface moisture could be quickly cleared away. The second resumption saw Riviere able to finish the second set and play the first game of the third.
It would be to no avail, as once again conditions became poor. Given the options of a stop-start match, resuming the following morning or moving to the West Court, the players and tournament director agreed that the latter would be the least worse option. The remaining West Court bookings of the day were canceled to the chagrin of a couple of Queen’s members. The crowd filtered in to any vantage point they could find as a one camera stream was hastily set up for the viewers around the world.
Taylor-Matthews had better fortune on the West, winning four as many games as he had done on the East. Riviere couldn’t dominate quite as easily as he had previously done, partly due to the stop-start disruption of the match halting his momentum. Riviere had match points at 5/2, but Taylor-Matthews kept fighting to the end, winning another two games before the finish.
“That was without a doubt one of the weirdest, most chaotic matches I’ve ever played,” said Riviere. “We tried to play through it was just getting downright dangerous. Even the West Court by the end of the match was starting to sweat a little bit as well. If you really stomp down and try and take a step it’s fine, but when you try to push off and be on your toes it’s very slippery and it’s very easy to hurt yourself.
“He served a lot better on the West Court, so that early lead that I had in the other sets - I felt very dominant on the other court with my serves and my play from the service end. It definintely took a few games to adjust. I know I jumped out to a 4/1 lead but I felt that it wasn’t as clean and clear and that was evident by him fighting back and the end. I was very happy to snag that third, I didn’t want to be out there any longer.”
Match results:
2:00 pm Leon Smart (6) vs Nick Howell (2) 1/6 2/6 3/6
4:00 pm Camden Riviere (1) def Ben Taylor-Matthews (3) 6/0 6/1 6/4
Order of Play for Saturday:
2:00 pm Rob Fahey & Steve Virgona (3) vs Nick Howell & Leon Smart (2)
4:00 pm Tim Chisholm & Camden Riviere (1) vs Ben Taylor-Matthews & Nino Merola (4)