Having dismissed the top seeds in the semi-final, and facing an unseeded pair in the final, Finn Reynolds and James Watt were entitled to feel confident about their chances against Alex Martinez and Adria Soriano Barrera when it came to the last match of their tournament in Tyler, but it was a pretty even start when just one point was lost by the serving team in the first four games.
That came in the third, when Martinez was forced to hit a backhand into the net to end the best of the very few decent rallies in the match after just nine shots. That came after Soriano Barrera and Watt had held to love, and Reynolds did the same. It was the left-hander who took Soriano Barrera to deuce when he hit a beautiful cross-court backhand volley to end a great short rally, but it was Martinez who lost the deciding point when he hit a backhand volley into the net.
The two best shots in the match ended the first two points when Watt served next, Martinez taking the first with a fabulous forehand return. It was originally called out, but umpire Joshua Brace overruled the call as he was satisfied that the ball had caught the line. Reynolds followed that with a stunning angled backhand volley, and Watt went on to hold to consolidate the break.
Umpire Brace got involved in the next game as well, but this time he was definitely wrong. The second serve on Martinez’ second point landed clearly long, and the line judge called it out, with Watt’s cross-court backhand return being forced wide. The umpire overruled the call, and gave the point to Martinez as he believed that the out call hadn’t affected Watt’s shot. In another twist, Martinez finished the game with a second serve ace down the middle to Reynolds, but the ball landed clearly on the wrong side of the centre line – and didn’t get recorded as an ace in the stats anyway.
Reynolds held to love to leave Soriano Barrera serving to stay in the set, but he started with a double fault before his partner got forced to hit two forehand volleys into the net. That gave the New Zealanders four set points, but Reynolds converted the first after 26 minutes when he hit another beautiful angled backhand volley.
Watt lost one point in the opening game of the second set, to a beautiful inside-out forehand return from Soriano Barrera, who added a lovely cross-court forehand volley when Martinez served next. The latter was forced to jam a backhand volley into the ground to give away a deuce, and this time it was his forehand that was the victim of another good shot from the other side of the net.
Reynolds held to love to consolidate the advantage, and added a beautiful inside-out forehand return to start the next game from Soriano Barrera. The latter finished by acing Watt out wide, but the tall New Zealander’s only lost point in the next game was when he was forced into an error by a great return of serve from Martinez.
Reynolds hit another lovely inside-out forehand return off Martinez, and a great return of the next serve from Watt forced the Spaniard to hit a forehand into the net. That gave away two break points, but he saved both with unreturnable serves before losing the deciding point when he hit a forehand wide off another good return from Reynolds.
Martinez did get a little bit of revenge with his own beautiful backhand return down the tramlines to take the first point when Reynolds was trying to serve out, but gave away two Championship points when he was forced to hit a backhand return into the net. Soriano Barrera saved the first of those when he steered a lovely forehand return into the left tramline, and that took them to deuce. It was the first break point that the unseeded pair had managed, but any hope of a revival was quashed instantly when Reynolds aced Soriano Barrera down the middle to end the match after 52 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 6-1.
It was Reynolds’ third Challenger title, but Watt’s first, and it came in their third final together after being runners-up in Cuernavaca and Ostrava. Their campaign together has been terrifically successful, with a title, two other finals, a semi-final, three quarter-finals and just one first round defeat in their eight tournaments together since the beginning of April. It has also rocketed them up the rankings, with Reynolds now up to 125 and Watt at 165, a far cry from the 339 and 606 that were their respective levels a year ago.