Matt Donald’s only previous M25 singles final was in Monastir last November, where he lost in two tie-breaks, so he would have been hoping for a better result on the clay in Kassel. Even allowing for the surface, I was still surprised that there were no line judges, and that feeling was even stronger by the end of the match after several calls from the chair umpire went the opposite way from what I was expecting. The players weren’t complaining, though, so maybe it was just the angles through the screen that looked dodgy.
Max Wiskandt served first, and held to love in a game that contained the first of quite a few fantastic rallies before ending with the first of quite a few aces from the German. Donald, on the other hand, hit double faults to lose his first and third points, and Wiskandt won the point between with a beautiful forehand through the left-hand side of the court. Unforced and forced errors from Wiskandt gave back two of the break points, but he completed the break when he copied the shot that had won him the second point.
Another hold to love really set the German up for a good run, but Donald shrugged off his disappointing first game by winning his second, this one including two gorgeous cross-court forehand winners. Wiskandt lost and won points with the help of the net cord in the next game, and his third ace gave him a game point. He couldn’t quite get a proper crack at a drop shot from Donald, conceding the first of three deuces, and he eventually lost the game to a beautiful inside-out forehand winner from the Czech representative.
With only four more deuces in the match, all coming in separate games, there wouldn’t be any that were longer than the seven minute one that we had just watched. One of those deuces came in the next game, which had started exactly the same way as Donald’s first, even down to Wiskandt‘s forehand winner through the left-hand side of the court on the second point. Once again Wiskandt couldn’t get close enough to a drop shot to control his response, and his next backhand return went into the net.
The difference between the second game and this was that Donald was able to hit a fabulous forehand winner down the line to end the great short rally that came next. As if that wasn’t enough, the wonderful 18 shot rally that followed the deuce was the best in the match, even if it did end tamely when Wiskandt hit a forehand into the tramlines. He did the same to lose the game, but held his own serve next up, despite a fabulous cross-court forehand return onto the sideline from Donald that saved the first game point.
Donald overhit two forehands to start his next game before thumping a fabulous forehand winner down the left sideline. He gave away more break points when forced to hit a forehand into the net at the end of one great rally, but saved the first by forcing Wiskandt to go long at the end of another. The rally that came next was even better, and it ended with Donald hitting a fabulous inside-out forehand winner to get to deuce. Wiskandt’s next return went into the net, and he lost the game to another error forced by a drop shot.
Wiskandt then held to love for the third time before Donald hit a beautiful winning drop shot on the way to holding in turn. Now at the business end of the set, Wiskandt hit beautiful forehand and backhand winners on the way to guaranteeing himself at least a tie-break, and that left Donald needing to hold to join him in the decider.
Instead, Donald had his worst service game in the match, and he didn’t even win the single point that went in his favour. That came from Wiskandt absolutely hammering a forehand return into the net, with Donald then being forced to hit backhand and forehand shots into the net to give away two set points. Wiskandt decided that one was enough, closing out the set after 54 minutes with an overhead volley down the right-hand side of the court.
The standout shots almost completely dried up during the second set, although Wiskandt kept hitting aces and there were plenty of good rallies, but there weren’t any of these when Wiskandt won the opening game of the second set to love. Donald held safely, but Wiskandt’s second game was a real mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly.
He started with an unreturnable serve before forcing Donald to hit a forehand wide. An ace took him to 40-0, but he then hit two double faults before losing a great rally by hitting a backhand into the net. There was another great rally after the deuce, and you could almost see Donald change his mind about three times before he hit an awful overhead volley almost into the fence at the far end from the camera. That gave Wiskandt a game point, and he ended the great short rally which followed with a simple cross-court forehand volley.
Donald then held again before Wiskandt started the next game with two aces, and finished with another, although Donald had saved the first game point with an easy forehand middle through the middle of the court to end another great rally. The next two games went with serve as well, and Donald started his next with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner.
Things might have turned out quite differently had he not slipped and fallen after hitting his next serve, because he was unable to get near Wiskandt’s huge forehand return. A rare drop shot from Wiskandt forced Donald to hit a backhand into the net, and he conceded break points when he hit a forehand over the baseline to end a good rally. He did save both with good serves, but Wiskandt then got the advantage with a stunning cross-court forehand return onto the baseline, and Donald overhit another forehand to lose the game.
The break couldn’t have come at a worse time, because it meant that Wiskandt would now be serving for the title. He started with two unreturnable serves, but double faulted before bringing up two Championship points with an inside-out forehand winner. He missed the first when he hit a forehand into the tramlines to end a good rally, but Donald pulled a forehand into the tramlines to lose the second. The final score was 7-5, 6-3, and the match had taken an hour and 35 minutes.