Cary in North Carolina was the venue for the second of Finn Reynolds’ and James Watt’s five Challenger titles last year, with the main difference this year being the intense heat dome covering much of the United States that caused temperatures in the city to soar to a life-threatening 48 degrees on Saturday. The worst had passed by the time Sunday’s final rolled around, but it was still around 30 degrees when play got underway just after 8 pm local time.
Their opponents were Nam Ji-sung from Korea and Finnish left-hander Patrik Niklas-Salminen, and it was Watt who got the match underway by holding safely. Niklas-Salminen started by acing Reynolds, and went on to hold to love, with the New Zealand left-hander and Nam each dropping just one point. Nam hit a beautiful cross-court forehand volley in Watt’s second game, only to get aced out wide on the next point.
The same happened to Niklas-Salminen, who held again before hitting the shot of the match, a fabulous forehand return through the right-hand side of the court off Reynolds. The latter still held in turn, as did Nam, despite a terrific backhand return down the tramlines from Watt. The latter then held to love when Reynolds won the final point with a cross-court backhand volley that landed on the sideline, and Niklas-Salminen also got through his next game without any problems.
Reynolds made it eleven held games in a row, leaving Nam needing to do the same to force a tie-break. He got a game point when Watt was forced to hit a forehand volley over the baseline to end a good rally, but the latter forced an error from Nam in turn when a great return of serve saw the Korean’s forehand shot go wide. That took them to deuce, where the decider also became a set point, and it went the way of the New Zealanders when Watt was able to smash away a volley to end the set after 41 minutes.
Watt and Niklas-Salminen held comfortably to start the second set, with the latter’s second return in the next game clipping the net cord before deflecting over Watt’s waiting racquet and landing safely in the court behind him. Reynolds then hit a backhand volley into the net to give away break points and, although Nam missed the first chance when he hit a forehand volley into the net, he converted the second with an inside-out smash.
Nam got taken to deuce when Reynolds won a fantastic 14 shot rally with a beautiful inside-out forehand volley, but it was Niklas-Salminen who won the good short rally on the deciding point when he hit a backhand volley through the middle of the court. Watt then held to love before finishing another great rally with an overhead volley that landed on the baseline.
That created two break points against Niklas-Salminen, with Nam’s cross-court forehand volley saving the first before Watt sent an inside-out forehand into the net to take them to deuce. Reynolds safely returned the deciding point, and Niklas-Salminen gave back the break when he hit a forehand into the net. Nam hit glorious winners to end two great rallies in the next game, with a cross-court forehand taking the first and a fabulous tapped backhand volley the second, but they were the only points Reynolds lost.
It was then Nam’s turn to hold to love before being aced out wide by Watt to end the next game, with Niklas-Salminen holding to love as well. The incredible 20 shot rally which started the next game was the best in the match, with Niklas-Salminen winning that when he smashed away the winner after letting the incoming ball bounce first.
A beautiful forehand return from Nam brought up break points, and he converted the second with another terrific return of serve that landed on the baseline. That left the Korean serving for the set, and he started with a winning forehand volley before the New Zealanders missed their next three returns of serve. The set had taken 50 minutes, and the break back meant that a match tie-break would be needed to decide the result.
Watt and Niklas-Salminen each won their first point, but Nam lost a good short rally on the next when he tried to intercept a shot down the tramlines with a backhand volley, only to see the ball squirt away over the sideline. He was then forced into a return error, but Reynolds double faulted to lose his second point and give back the mini-break. An unreturnable serve from Nam to Watt made the scores level as they went to the first change of ends, but a great return from Reynolds then forced Nam to hit a backhand into the net.
The remaining points in that group of six all went with serve, so the New Zealander were still a mini-break in front as they swapped ends for the second time, only for Reynolds to double fault again. Watt and Reynolds both missed returns when Nam served, but Reynolds hit a backhand volley to win the first of Watt’s next pair of points. I really couldn’t believe it when Watt then double faulted to give away a Championship point, and his attempted backhand return of Niklas-Salminen’s serve went wide and didn’t even get as far as the net.
The final score was 5-7, 7-5, 10-8, and the match had lasted for an hour and 51 minutes. Although the New Zealand pair drop points because they didn’t retain their title, they have a chance to recover straight away because their next tournament, in Newport, was one where they lost in the first round last year.