Virgona and Howell win Australian Open doubles ending Riviere's 13 year unbeaten streak
Fahey and Bollerman defend women's doubles title
Steve Virgona and Nick Howell have become the first players in 13 years to defeat Camden Riviere in an Open doubles match, winning the Australian Open final in five sets at the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Claire Fahey and Saskia Bollerman have successfully defended their Australian Open title in straight sets over Lea Van Der Zwalmen and Katherine Carney.
Following a full day of matches in the Boomerang Cup in Melbourne, the Australian Open resumed with the women’s doubles final. Defending champions and first seeds Claire Fahey and Saskia Bollerman were challenged by second seeds Lea Van Der Zwalmen and Katherine Carney, the latter playing in her first Australian Open final and her second overall Open final. Starting the match at the hazard end, Van Der Zwalmen put Carney in to receive Fahey’s serve and opting to take on Bollerman’s serve herself as a tactic to bank a few games. They also switched sides where possible at the hazard end, putting Van Der Zwalmen’s strong backhand under the grille and letting Carney swing for the fences with her forehand.
Initially their tactic worked, splitting the first two games between the two pairs. But from there, Fahey established control of the match, especially from the back of the service court, while Bollerman’s ability to pick balls out of the air with her double-handed backhand volley was second-to-none. Van Der Zwalmen and Carney were able to keep the pressure on Fahey and Bollerman, often winning the strategic battle mid-rally but falling to a missed shot execution. Fahey and Bollerman built themselves a three game buffer, but Van Der Zwalmen was getting stronger in the long rallies. However, Carney’s return of serve was not strong enough to challenge Fahey, with the defending champions easing through the end of the set.
Van Der Zwalmen and Carney opted for the same setup in the second set. Fahey relaxed more readily into the match, enjoying herself more and more as it played out. She seemed thrilled to be involved in a good-quality doubles match. Carney went absent in the galleries for the first half of the second set, before starting to assert herself more forcefully as the road was quickly running out. They recovered another couple of games, but it was too little, too late. Fahey and Bollerman walked out straight-sets victors, winning the title for the fifth time as a pair.
After a short break, the players took to the court for the open doubles final. Defending champions Camden Riviere and Chris Chapman entered as second seeds, challenged by the French Open champions Nick Howell and Steve Virgona. The match began with Chapman receiving from Howell. Chapman and Riviere initially set up in the I formation popularised by Riviere and Tim Chisholm. Riviere danced around the front of the court, leaving Chapman to mop up anything behind. Virgona and Howell were switching immediately on the return of serve, putting the left-handed Virgona under the grille. Virgona was then able to move up the court to defend the tambour, playing balls boasted off the wall in front of the tambour to great effect. After Riviere and Chapman won the first two games, Virgona and Howell pulled back the next three, with Virgona impressing with his changes of pace: on one point able to float a ball into the grille and on the next to slam it full-speed at the floor in the stroke area. The rallies were long and entertaining, but all too often resulted in an error from Chapman. The first seeds were keen to pick him off, as they won six of the last seven games in the set.
Riviere switched to receiving Howell for the second set. While leading 2/0, Riviere chased a ball into his forehand corner at the service end, but slid over his left ankle which gripped and stuck on the court, the momentum of his body weight carrying him forward and sliding into the wall. After a few beats, he got up gingerly to assess the damage, taking an injury time out for assessment. When he returned, the full house crowd applauded his bravery and commitment. For the rest of the match, Riviere was much keener to end points much more quickly than usual, hopping around awkwardly at times as he pushed through the pain. They lost the next two games while Riviere re-found his feet, but the game soon re-established a rhythm. Riviere’s movement was more conservative than usual, but still beyond the level of most mortals. Chapman stepped into his role as a foil well, impressing the crowd by pulling off a series of periscope volleys as they marched on to a 1-all scoreline.
There was another switch of receivers for the third set, with Virgona now serving to Chapman. Virgona was serving underarm piques from next to the main wall, trying to get the ball deep on the grille wall, before running off to his preferred forehand side. The set edged forward game by game. Chapman was boasting off every wall possible — a game that Virgona and Riviere needed little invitation to join in on. Meanwhile, Howell was playing an anchor role, rarely needing to pull off anything flashy but providing support for Virgona to pick his unorthodox court positions with ease. Riviere and Chapman broke away from 3-all to 5/3, but Virgona and Howell were able to bring it back to 5-all, with the last point of the tenth game being the reste of the tournament. It featured an impossible return of serve boast by Riviere, followed by volley out of the winning gallery, then a volley by Chapman out of the grille, only for Virgona to have to play a ball out of the dedans. Riviere then played a back wall boast from a ball that Virgona had struck onto the tambour, then Chapman charged the net to pull off a periscope volley, which Virgona returned at full stretch for Riviere to dump into the net. Riviere went into beast mode in the deciding game, charging all over the court and getting everything back as they went on to secure a one-game lead.
The drop off of intensity at the start of the fourth set coupled with a few minutes to calm down with a bathroom break did not favour Riviere and Chapman. Howell was the epitome of consistency, hardly making an error and allowing Virgona to be the attack dog. They were both forcing well, sending Riviere chasing the ball all over the court. The jovial Riviere that was present through the first rounds had well and truly evaporated, and the dishevelled Riviere that only appears once a decade was present. Though Riviere and Chapman were able to pull back three games of a four-game deficit, Virgona and Howell were dominant at the hazard end, sending the match into a deciding set.
For the first time in the match, there was no change of receivers for the start of the fifth set. Riviere tried moving away from the railroad, copying Virgona with a few piques, but quickly abandoned it. By now, Riviere’s injury was becoming more noticeable between points and it affected the way he played, making more errors off the strings than would normally be expected for a player who is typically a very clean striker of the ball. Howell was solid throughout and Virgona never let up in his pace. Riviere tried to penetrate through the first seeds but ended up putting plenty of balls into the net. Howell and Virgona had two set points at 5/1, but were fended off with a brace of nick railroads by Chapman. But in the next game, Howell found a ball off the tambour to be flush with the back wall, with Riviere’s attempted back wall boast in vain. He and Virgona dropped their rackets and embraced in a hug.
The result marked Riviere’s first doubles loss in a tournament where he has choice of partner since the 2013 World Championship, where he and Chisholm lost to Virgona and Robert Fahey. It was his first loss in an Open since the 2013 Australian Open — partnering Howell and losing to Virgona and Kieran Booth. His only other match losses have been in the Pell Cup and USCTA National League, tournaments where he cannot choose a partner.
The next ranking points tournament on the calendar will be the US Open in Chicago in March. In the meantime, several of the Australian Open players are expected to appear at the Seacourt Silver Racquet in the UK and the US National Open in the USA.
Match results:
5:00 PM: Claire Fahey & Saskia Bollerman (1) def Katherine Carney & Lea Van Der Zwalmen 6/3 6/2
6:30 PM: Nick Howell & Steve Virgona (1) def Chris Chapman & Camden Riviere 6/3 3/6 5/6 6/3 6/2