Although he’s played several doubles finals, winning two of them, Matt Donald was hoping that it would be a case of third time lucky when it came to singles finals when he took on Max Schoenhaus in their title clash in Monastir. The German teenager has already tasted success in singles, winning an M15 final in Monastir six weeks ago, but the step up from that to M25 can still be quite tough.
Schoenhaus gave away a break point when he hit a forehand into the net, but saved it when he forced Donald to do the same at the end of a great short rally. He got the advantage when he hit a beautiful forehand winner down the left sideline, and an ace out wide wrapped up the game. Donald also had to get through a deuce, but his came when Schoenhaus hit a lovely forehand winner down the line, and two poor returns of serve gifted the hold to Donald.
He took further advantage of Schoenhaus’ generosity by hitting only two unforced errors in the next game, whereas the German hit four to lose his serve. Donald held to love to consolidate the break, and hit a fabulous forehand winner down the right-hand side of the court in the next game before losing his own serve when he double faulted after Schoenhaus had created a break point with a stunning forehand return down the right-hand side of the court.
It looked like Schoenhaus might immediately give away another break when his second forced error took the score to 0-40, but unforced and forced forehand errors from Donald, either side of a winning backhand volley from Schoenhaus, meant that they ended up at deuce. Donald hit his next forehand into the net, and Schoenhaus’ third ace let him hold again.
They each hit gorgeous volleys on the way to winning their next service games, Donald starting with a beautiful angled forehand drop volley and Schoenhaus hitting a lovely backhand to end a great rally. The next few standout shots as they worked their way towards a tie-break all came from Schoenhaus, with a superb cross-court forehand and a beautiful backhand down the line completing a hold to love before he started Donald’s last game with a fabulous forehand down the line to end a good short rally.
Donald added a stunning low backhand volley to end the longest rally in the match after 15 shots, and Schoenhaus pulled a forehand into the tramlines to end the game and make that tie-break a reality. Donald got an immediate jump on his opponent when he won the first point with a fantastic cross-court forehand winner, and he doubled his advantage when Schoenhaus lost his third point by hitting a forehand into the net.
Although it wasn’t the longest, the fantastic 11 shot rally which came next was the best in the match, but Donald gave back one of the mini-breaks when he was forced to hit a backhand wide. He regained the extra advantage when Schoenhaus lost his next serve by hitting a forehand over the baseline, and that gave Donald four set points. The first was saved by an unreturnable serve, but Donald then had tow of his own serves to come. He lost the first when he pushed a forehand wide, but couldn’t do much about the shot which forced him to pull a backhand wide at the end of a great rally.
He still had one set point to play with, but Schoenhaus hit a beautiful forehand winner through the right-hand side of the court to level the scores as they changed ends for the second time. He won his second point as well when he again forced Donald to hit a forehand wide, and that meant the German had won five points in a row and now had his own first set point. The serve went back over the net to Donald, but he could do absolutely nothing against the blistering inside-out forehand that Schoenhaus used to wrap up the set after exactly an hour.
The first half of the second set saw a string of comfortable holds, so it was more a case of checking the highlights than wondering if either player was going to break. Donald hit a fabulous cross-court backhand winner in the second game, but lost the other four points, while Schoenhaus started the next game with a fantastic cross-court backhand winner off what looked like a certain winning drop shot.
He added a beautiful forehand winner in the next game and a lovely cross-court backhand winner when Donald served, while he enlivened his own third game with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner and a fabulous forehand passing shot. Donald was up 40-15 in the next game, but dropped himself back to deuce with forced and unforced errors. Schoenhaus grabbed the first break point in the set when he hit an inside-out forehand winner, but an unreturnable serve took care of that. An overhit forehand from Schoenhaus gave Donald the advantage, and he added his second ace in the game to complete the hold.
Schoenhaus then started with two aces before completing a hold to love with another, and Donald had a much more straightforward hold to leave Schoenhaus needing to do the same to stay in the set. A backhand into the net from the German gave Donald a set point, but Schoenhaus forced him to hit his next backhand return into the net. Donald got another set point with the shot of the match, a fantastic cross-court backhand lob that landed right in the corner, but another unreturnable serve took them to a second deuce.
Schoenhaus got the advantage this time when he hit an easy forehand winner through the middle of the court, and another unreturnable serve completed the hold that he needed. It got even better for him when he hit a beautiful cross-court forehand winner in the next game, because Donald also hit three unforced errors to gift a break and leave Schoenhaus serving for the title. He had just as much trouble, forcing Donald into a backhand error but losing the other four points to send them to another tie-break.
We’ve all seen what influence a net cord can have, especially if it completely alters the course of a point, and that was what happened on the opener when a backhand from Schoenhaus clipped the cord and simply fell over the other side, giving him an immediate mini-break. The remaining points before the change of ends all went with serve, the highlight being a fabulous soft low backhand volley from Donald, and he got the mini-break back as soon as they swapped around, Schoenhaus hitting a forehand into the net to lose a good rally after 13 shots.
Donald hit a gorgeous soft backhand chip shot to level the scores, but lost his next point when Schoenhaus hit a beautiful inside-out forehand winner. An unreturnable serve at a crucial moment gave Schoenhaus two Championship points, and neither player could believe it when the net cord intervened again. The shot was another backhand from Schoenhaus, which was clearly going to go long, but it caught enough of the cord to slow it down and drop about half a metre inside the baseline.
Donald just stood there in stunned silence before walking over to the net to shake Schoenhaus’ hand after a contest which had lasted for two hours and three minutes. The final score was 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), and Donald will have to wait at least a week before getting another chance to win his first singles title.