The highlights kicked off from the very first point when Kiranpal Pannu played Alfredo Perez in the second round of qualifying for the ATP Challenger tournament in Calgary this morning, with the American hitting a beautiful backhand winner down the line to start before Pannu hit a lovely cross-court backhand winner to end a great rally after 17 shots. That saved the first break point after he had double faulted on the previous point, and he eventually held serve after two deuces.
Pannu then forced Perez into two errors before the American made two more without any assistance to lose his first service game to love. From there on games went with serve – the first three comfortably, the next two after a deuce – before Perez finished a good rally on the first point of his next game with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner. He hit a lovely forehand return down the left sideline in the next game, and followed that with an even better forehand return, but he pulled the final point of the set into the tramlines to allow Pannu to serve it out after 41 minutes.
Perez held serve after a deuce to start the second set, but Pannu started with consecutive double faults before forcing Perez into a return error. A great stretch to hit a fabulous backhand return down the line gave Perez two break points, but Pannu saved the first with a smash and the second with an ace. He was forced into two errors after the deuce, however, and that was the end of the game. Perez then made it three games in a row, despite a beautiful cross-court forehand volley from Pannu, who then held to love to get on the board. Pannu took Perez to 0-40 with a lovely cross-court forehand winner, and Perez saved only the first break point before hitting a backhand over the baseline. Pannu hit his fifth ace to complete a hold to love, and that levelled the scores.
The longest game in the set came next, with Perez hitting a beautiful cross-court backhand winner before a double fault gave away a break point, but he saved that with a gorgeous forehand winner down the left sideline. A lovely cross-court forehand from Pannu forced Perez to hit a forehand into the net to end a great rally on the next point, but Perez eventually held serve after three deuces.
Pannu only needed to survive one to keep on level terms, with Perez cruising through the next game after starting with a beautiful inside-out forehand winner into the corner. He hit a great backhand return off Pannu in the next game, which also went to deuce, but Pannu got the advantage with a beautiful cross-court forehand volley before an ace down the middle completed the game. Perez disputed this call as well, having complained about others earlier, but I replayed it several times and the ball definitely hit the centre line well before the end of the service box.
Perez lost and won great rallies to start the next game, but finished with an ace of his own, and Pannu had another comfortable hold to take them to a tie-break. That didn’t start so well, as he lost the first point from Perez before hitting a forehand volley into the net to lose his own first point. He lost his second as well, but that was to a beautiful forehand return down the line.
Pannu got one mini-break back when he hit a cross-court backhand into the tramlines, but the remaining points all went with serve. That included an ace from Pannu that led to another dispute with umpire Joe Loeub. I replayed that one several times as well, but one look was enough to show me that it had landed comfortably inside the service box. That ace saved the first set point, and a backhand return from Perez that went long saved the second, but Pannu missed a chance to save the third when he ended a great rally by swinging his final forehand into the tramlines after 12 shots. The set had taken an hour and three minutes.
Pannu hit a beautiful forehand volley down the left sideline on the way to holding serve comfortably at the start of the final set, but it didn’t go that easily for Perez. He did hit a beautiful cross-court forehand winner before a backhand into the tramlines conceded a break point. He saved that with an ace, and had to save another when Pannu got the advantage with a fabulous forehand lob, saving that by forcing the New Zealander into a forehand error. They eventually worked their way through six deuces, with a great 18 shot rally after the fifth of them which Pannu lost with an overhit forehand. He saved that game point with another fabulous forehand lob, but was forced into a return error on the next point before Perez wrapped up the game with an ace. Pannu finished the next game with a beautiful inside-out backhand volley before Perez held to love.
The next game saw Perez hit two fabulous backhand returns, the first one going down the line and the second an inside-out shot into the corner. The latter gave him a break point, but Pannu saved that with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley, and two errors from Perez allowed the New Zealander to hold serve. It was Pannus turn to dispute an ace in the next game, but again it looked OK to me. He did hit a fabulous forehand return down the left sideline to get to the first of two deuces, but Perez continued the sequence of holds. The next two games went with serve as well, and then it was time for some more highlights.
Pannu hit a fabulous reflex backhand volley when Perez blasted the ball straight at him in a short rally, and the best rally of the match took them to the second deuce, Perez claiming that with a beautiful inside-out forehand winner. He was forced to hit his next backhand return into the net, and ace number ten from Pannu clinched the hold. Perez held to love, and the next two games went with serve as well, Perez hitting a beautiful cross-court forehand winner in the latter before losing a great rally with an error, but he took them to another tie-break with his tenth ace.
The first three points all went to the receiver through unforced errors, but it was the next point where Perez finally lost it. He hit a backhand return which clipped the net cord and deflected past Pannu’s racquet for what he thought was a winner, obviously not having heard the umpire call a let on the serve. Sometimes it’s obvious, even on a not very high resolution feed, that the serve has touched the net cord on the way through, but this wasn’t one of those occasions.
He argued with umpire Loeub for three or four minutes, even dragging Pannu into the discussion, before begrudgingly allowing Pannu to serve again. Both those points saw forced return errors, but then it was Pannu’s turn to complain about Perez’ fabulous cross-court backhand winner to end a great rally, claiming it had landed in the tramlines. Even with sidelines being much harder to judge from a fixed central camera than the centre line, the ball looked to me to have landed safely.
Another ace from Pannu set Perez off again, this time claiming the serve had gone long. That was harder to judge, but it had definitely hit the centre line. When Perez was forced to hit a backhand into the tramline on Pannu’s second serve, it gave the New Zealander three match points – but they weren’t done yet. Two fabulous rallies followed when Perez served, the first a fantastic one that lasted for 18 shots and was the best of the match. Pannu hit his final cross-court backhand into the tramlines to lose that one, and he lost the great 16 shot rally that followed when he hit a backhand into the net.
He still had one match point left, on his own serve, but blew that one as well with an inside-out backhand volley into the tramlines. That took them to the second change of ends, with the scores level again, but Pannu got a fourth match point with an ace down the middle – and Perez spat the dummy again. This time, though, he was justified, because the ball clearly landed on the wrong side of the centre line. Unfortunately video replays aren’t part of the umpire’s armoury, and he has to trust the line judges to get it right. They usually do, and it was very unfortunate that, this time, they didn’t. Perez missed his first serve, and Pannu hammered his backhand return of the second down the line to end the match after three hours and 11 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6).
The drama didn’t end there, as Pannu waited in vain at the net for the traditional handshake while Perez stalked straight over to his seat, grabbed his bags, and was gone. Apparently the locker room no longer looks as neat and tidy as it did at the start of the day.