Woods-Casey wins RMTC pro-shop battle over Chapman in five sets of searing Australian Open heat
Michael Williams outlasts Gale in scrappy five set affair
John Woods-Casey and Michael Williams have defeated seeds to progress to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday. Meanwhile top seeds Camden Riviere, Nick Howell and Claire Fahey have all moved on largely untroubled in the boiling temperatures in Richmond.
With the mercury beginning to climb, the players stepped on court for the first match of the morning. Second seed Nick Howell was challenged by Tasmanian sensation Oliver Pridmore. Pridmore struggled early, with his strategy to play high-risk, high-reward shots not paying off as Howell mopped up loose ball after loose ball. Pridmore could not find a way to get on top of Howell’s relatively innocuous-looking but deadly accurate railroad, slapping the ball wildly and setting up easy forehands for Howell.
The first set was completed in just half an hour, with Pridmore winning just 9 points. The second set wasn’t tracking much better, as Howell knocked up a 5/1 lead including a behind-the-back grille. Pridmore finally mustered some fight in the 5/2 game — a long deuce exchange — as he started hitting his targets and engaging Howell in the longer rallies. Howell was ready to match Pridmore at the higher level, stamping out any notion of a comeback before it began. Howell reasserted his dominance in the third set, completely controlling proceedings from the service end as he wrapped up a comfortable victory.
The second match was the much anticipated battle of the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club pro shop, with the senior professional Chris Chapman taking on the assistant professional John Woods-Casey. The first set was very closely matched, with plenty of play up and down the main wall as each tried to beat the other for pace. Chapman, as always, was picking balls out of the air and slamming them at the dedans, while Woods-Casey was experimenting with different variations of spin. Ultimately, Woods-Casey spent too much time at the hazard end to benefit from his advantage in the longer rallies, with Chapman finishing the set with a blasted dedans.
The second set was equally tight, with Woods-Casey increasingly vocalising his inability to execute any perceived deviation from his preparation. Chapman remained uninterested in chipping the ball into the corners, opting to boast the ball and force Woods-Casey into playing the ball at an angle to its trajectory. The scoreboard edged along, with neither player able to build any gap on the scoreboard until the end, when Woods-Casey sent Chapman the wrong way a couple of times to pick up some set points, then took the set moments later when Chapman’s ball hit the net tape. It was the first time in level competitions that Woods-Casey had taken a set off Chapman in their eight matches together.
Woods-Casey had to quickly refocus into the start of the third set as the pressure release of ending a set threatened to give Chapman a run. Though he managed to do so in the first half of the set, he was fractionally less able to execute his shots in the second half, missing out on a few opportunities by enough to give Chapman an edge. Chapman was only too happy to oblige, winning the last three games of the set. Playing chase 3 on set point, Woods-Casey tickled the ball into the last gallery, dropping his racket to the floor in frustration.
In the stifling heat and with the match deep into its third hour, the players were taking every opportunity to slow the game down and cool off in the fourth set. Chapman took a bathroom break at 2-all, which allowed Woods-Casey to briefly reset and re-evaluate his shot execution. Aside from the 4/2 game where he put a series of balls into the net tape, Woods-Casey got on top of the game — aligning with a period where the sky darkened significantly and the court lighting dimmed off. Woods-Casey carried the set, sending the match into a deciding set.
Into the fifth set, Chapman was starting to wilt in the heat. Increasingly, he was bringing out the trick shots: penthouse boasts, back penthouse volleys, no-look backhands and back wall boasts. Woods-Casey put the shenanigans out of his mind and calmly placed the ball into the corners to where Chapman was increasingly unwilling to run. As the set wore on, Chapman was visibly struggling with cramp in his left leg. Still, when the ball was within range he could hit it sweetly. By the end, Chapman was completely exhausted, hunched over against the first gallery for a long time after the match, while Woods-Casey took his first win over the former Australian Open winner of his career.
Having waited three and a half hours to play their match, World Champion Camden Riviere stepped onto the Melbourne court for the first time since 2019. The man tasked with the unenviable task of taking him on was Open debutant Ben Hudson. Hudson was unafraid to show Riviere what he was capable of, playing his shots and attacking where possible. But Riviere wasn’t going to give him an easy time, hitting with pace, power and control in a manner that Hudson was not capable of dealing with. Riviere was keen to get the match completed as quickly as possible, serving quickly and finishing out the points as fast as possible. The match was over in under an hour with Riviere moving into the next round easily.
From one World Champion to another, as Claire Fahey’s quarter-final match against qualifier Rachel Hollington followed on. Fahey was on for a golden set for the first 21 points out of 24 needed, never missing a ball until Hollington finally found a ball that nicked the join between the main wall and the tambour. Hollington picked up four further points — including one off a double fault — in the second set, but in the end Fahey cruised to victory in just 27 minutes.
The final match in the open first round was between Prested pro Levi Gale and Melbourne amateur Michael Williams. The first set was close throughout, with Williams smacking everything around as hard as he could and Gale scrapping to try and stay in the points. After starting well, more and more errors began creeping into Gale’s game as he couldn’t find a way to turn his retrieval into a shot that would trouble Williams. The Australian ran out with the first set leaving plenty of questions for Gale to have to answer.
Initially it looked as though Gale had found them, hitting a vein of form to begin the second set where he couldn’t miss a ball, winning the first three games. It waned slightly afterwards, losing a long deuce battle and then an easy game to Williams to bring the score to 3/2. But after Gale found a sweet straight force straight down the middle, something seemed to click. He was better able to find winners from anywhere on the court, and found an extra gear to chase down balls well out of his reach. His forces remained on point as he won the next three games he needed to level up the match.
The match turned again into the third set, as this time it was Williams who hit a run of unreturnable winners, with Gale now having to fight to regain control. Williams kept running Gale around all of the angles of the court, leading to some rather impressive boasts out of trouble from the Brit. Gale fought back in the middle part of the set to 4-all as Williams ruminated on some of the calls from the marker and some of his shots. But at the end of the set — when it counted — Williams found the winners he needed, eventually taking the set with a ball that ran flush to the back wall, prompting him to hold up his racket in apology.
By the fourth set the players were getting hot and bothered, and tempers were running a bit thin. By now, they were less interested in playing out longer rallies and were both forcing the ball around looking for quick wins, even if that meant a few forces ended up being at the body. Williams’s frustration ran the deepest, resulting in a number of wayward shots that Gale was able to sweep up for the most comfortable set of the match thus far, setting up a fifth set for the second time in the day.
The fifth set was initially fought to a draw, sharing the first four games two-apiece. Gale then took a five minute injury time out owing to the heat. When he returned, it was evident he was struggling with the conditions, now three hours into the match. He started swinging for the rafters, bringing severe pace to his shot. Williams was able to fend off the bullets, and with enough on it to get Gale to run around after it and tire himself out even more. Williams won the last four straight games amid the chaos, cementing the match and his place in the quarter-finals to play Lewis Williams.
Play continues on Thursday with all four quarter-finals in the open draw, plus the remaining three quarter-finals in the women’s draw.
Match results:
11:00 AM: Oliver Pridmore lost to Nick Howell (2) 0/6 2/6 1/6
12:30 PM: John Woods-Casey def Chris Chapman (8) 4/6 6/4 3/6 6/3 6/2
4:30 PM: Camden Riviere (1) def Ben Hudson 6/1 6/0 6/1
5:30 PM: Claire Fahey (1) def Rachel Hollington (Q) 6/0 6/0
6:30 PM: Levi Gale (5) lost to Michael Williams 3/6 6/2 4/6 6/2 2/6
Order of play for Thursday (all times AEDT):
10:00 AM: Tara Lumley (3) vs Katherine Carney
Followed by (approx 11:00 AM): Steve Virgona (3) vs John Woods-Casey
Not before 1:30 PM: Jo See Tan vs Lea Van Der Zwalmen (2)
Followed by (approx 2:30 PM): Camden Riviere (1) vs Kieran Booth (6)
Followed by (approx 4:00 PM): Nino Merola (7) vs Nick Howell (2)
Not before 5:30 PM: Emma Clyde vs Saskia Bollerman (4)
Followed by (approx 6:30 PM): Michael Williams vs Lewis Williams (4)
Fantastic coverage of what sounds like a brutal day of tennis. Woods-Casey finally breaking thru against Chapman after 8 matches is one of those career milestones that matters beyond just the scoreline, especially doing it in a decider when Chapman was visibly cramping. The pro shop dynamic makes this even more intresting since they're working together daily but competing here. Heat managemnt seems to have separated these marathon matches more than the usual tactical stuff.