Benoit Paire started the first round doubles match at the ATP Challenger tournament in Calgary this morning by acing Joao Sousa, and he aced Steven Diez as well before having to save a break point after being forced to hit a backhand into the net. A good serve to Diez saw the Canadian’s return go back over the baseline, and Sousa’s return of the deciding point went into the net. There weren’t too many great rallies in the match, but the best of them started the second game, lasting for 14 shots before Paire hit a cross-court forehand into the net. He made up for that with a beautiful cross-court backhand winner, but Sousa still held serve pretty comfortably. Artem Sitak copied his partner’s start by acing Sousa first up, and lost just one point before Paire wrapped up the game with a beautiful angled forehand volley.
Paire was in the action again when Diez served, hitting a lovely backhand winner down the tramlines, but he finished the game with a backhand lob that went too far. Sitak finished a great rally in the next game with a fabulous stretch to put away a forehand volley as Paire continued the sequence of holds, and Sousa went a bit better with the first hold to love. Sitak held comfortably as well before winning the good rally on the first point of Diez’ game with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley. When Sousa put his hand up I thought for a moment that the ball had gone long, but he was actually indicating that it had touched his racquet on the way through. A huge forehand return from Paire created break points, but Diez got to deuce when the next two backhand returns of serve missed. Paire took the deciding point, but his inside-out forehand return just missed the sideline.
The highlight in the next game was a fabulous forehand winner down the line from Sousa, but he was forced into two backhand errors to take the score to deuce after Sitak had given away break points when his backhand volley had rebounded over the baseline. Diez took the deciding point, but Paire pushed a backhand long to give away the break, leaving Sousa to serve for the set. A cross-court backhand return into the net from Paire gave away three set points, but Sitak saved the first with a nice forehand return straight into Diez’ racquet. Paire couldn’t do anything with the second, though, his cross-court backhand return of serve flying wide to end the set after 33 minutes.
Paire may have been having his usual incredibly up and down day, but the up got stratospheric (not quite literally!) when he hit the shot of the match, a fantastic cross-court backhand lob which landed in the corner, and was so good that it drew applause from Sousa. That was just two points into the second set, and Paire went on to hold serve. Diez held serve in the next game, but it should have been to love rather than 15. The lost point came when Sousa was forced to hit a forehand into the net after Paire’s return of the serve had clearly landed over the baseline, but umpire Dawid Klawikowski wasn’t prepared to overrule the line judge. He did so in the next game, however, on the same line, when Paire’s backhand volley was called long, and Sitak wrapped up the hold with a fabulous cross-court backhand volley.
He then hit a stunning forehand return down the tramlines to win Sousa’s first point, Diez following that with a beautiful cross-court smash. Sousa ended a great rally on the next point by hitting a forehand wide, and winning volleys from Sitak and Paire secured the break of serve. Paire and Diez then had comfortable holds, Sousa winning the first point in the latter game with a fabulous angled backhand volley, but Sitak was brought back to earth with a crash when he lost his serve to love when forced to hit a backhand into the net.
Sousa held safely to level the scores before Diez brought up break points against Paire with a fabulous backhand return down the tramlines. He saved those before forcing Diez into a return error on the deciding point, and the remaining games all went with serve to take them to a tie-break. The first two points went with serve, but Diez and Sitak both hit double faults before Diez was forced into a backhand error to make the scores level as they changed ends for the first time. The next four points went with serve, the highlight being a beautiful backhand winner down the tramlines from Paire on his own serve, but Diez lost his second point when he hit a forehand wide.
That gave Sitak and Paire a set point on Sitak’s serve, but the New Zealander pulled up short after trying to hit an awkward backhand volley, and it appeared that he had done something to his right calf. The missed volley made the scores level as they were ready to change ends again, but Sitak went straight to his seat and waited for the physio to arrive.
In the end Sitak replaced the leg brace which he had been wearing and staggered away to serve the next point. It had been six minutes since play had stopped, and he simply bashed both his serves into the net. Sousa served the next ball to Paire, who thumped his return straight into the floor, and that was the end of the match after an hour and 27 minutes. The final score was 6-4, 7-6 (6).
It was a disappointing end to what was looking like a pretty promising comeback from Sitak and Paire. Hopefully any problems with the leg will disappear with some rest and recuperation, and Sitak confirmed afterwards that two weeks should be long enough to see him back to full fitness.