Kiranpal Pannu served first when he played 18 year old Emmett Potter in the first round of qualifying at the ATP Challenger tournament in Calgary this morning, the young left-hander hitting a beautiful cross-court forehand winner to save the second game point before sending his next return of serve back over the baseline. Potter finished his first service game with a double fault and two unforced errors before being forced into three return errors as Pannu held to love to consolidate the break. Potter then had to save a break point before hitting a beautiful cross-court forehand drop volley to get the advantage. He forced Pannu to hit his next backhand return into the net, and that gave him his first winning game in an ATP match.
Pannu then had a comfortable hold, hitting a beautiful lob to win a good short rally before Potter lost a better rally on the final point when his attempted inside-out drop shot drifted into the tramlines. He lost the good rally on the first point of the next game when his forehand hit the net cord and bounced back, and then lost the first great long rally of the match after 19 shots when his cross-court backhand just missed the sideline. Pannu won another great short rally on the next point with an overhead backhand volley, but Potter saved the first break point with a beautiful inside-out forehand winner before being forced to hit a forehand into the net to lose the game. That left Pannu serving for the set, and he coasted through the game, despite hitting a couple of unforced errors. The set had taken 35 minutes.
Potter started the second set by facing more break points after an overhead volley from Pannu won another short rally. He saved the first with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner, but sent a backhand over the baseline to lose the second. Astonishing as it might seem, there were really only four more winners in the match that were worthy of being added to a highlights package. All of them came from Potter, and the first of them was a fabulous inside-out backhand return of serve in the next game. It didn’t stop Pannu holding serve, but Potter held safely after a deuce in the next game, closing it out with a beautiful backhand winner.
Pannu then held to love, finishing with two aces, but the second of those was off a second serve when Potter got the angle of his racquet all wrong and played an air shot over the top of the ball. Pannu broke again in the next game, but at least Potter had the honour of hitting the shot of the match, a fabulous angled forehand drop shot to win a great rally. Pannu again held to love to now be only a game away from taking the match, but Potter held safely to force Pannu to serve it out. Two unforced errors from the New Zealander were followed by a nice forehand winner down the line from Potter, and Pannu saved only the first break point before hitting an angled backhand volley into the tramlines.
There were two good rallies to start the next game, each player losing one with an unforced error, but a backhand into the net from Potter gave away the first match point. He saved that in style with an ace out wide before forcing Pannu into a return error to get the advantage. He gave that away with a backhand over the baseline, but then won a good rally when Pannu hit a forehand into the net after 20 shots, and that was where Pannu’s next backhand return went as well.
Pannu now had a second attempt at serving for the match and, almost unbelievably, he went down 0-40 again. This time, though, he saved the first two with unreturnable serves before getting to deuce with an overhead backhand volley. Potter got the advantage with another outstanding return of serve, this time an inside-out forehand, but he lost a good 16 shot rally with a forehand into the net. A double fault gave away another break point, but they went to a second deuce when Potter ended the best rally of the match with a backhand into the net on the 26th shot. An overhit forehand from Potter to end another good short rally finally gave Pannu a second match point, and he converted that with an ace out wide. The last game had been the longest in the match, at just under eight minutes, and the whole contest lasted for an hour and 27 minutes. The final score was 6-1, 6-4.