Rubin Statham served first when he and Ben Lock played Mikalai Haliak and Markos Kalovelonis in their doubles quarter-final in Shenzhen last night, and ended up with a comfortable hold, despite a beautiful forehand winner down the tramlines from Kalovelonis to save the second game point. Haliak’s only lost point was from a double fault, and he finished the game with a huge smash from deep in the court. Lock, on the other hand, had to save a break point after he thumped a forehand over the baseline, but he did that in style by acing Kalovelonis out wide. Haliak got the deciding point back in play, but a nice soft volley from Statham let his partner hold serve.
Kalovelonis had a straightforward hold, and Statham held comfortably as well, but there were a couple of highlights in the latter game. Kalovelonis hit a beautiful cross-court backhand return to win the second point, and Lock secured the win with a lovely angled backhand stop volley. Haliak aced Lock out wide twice on the way to 40-0, but he followed those with a double fault and a forehand that went wide before Lock hit an easy backhand winner to go to deuce, and he won the deciding point with a forehand volley to get the first break of serve. Statham hit a beautiful cross-court backhand volley to start the next game and, with both Lock and Kalovelonis winning their games, that left Statham serving for the set.
Haliak won the first point with a beautiful cross-court forehand return, and his partner won the fourth with a fabulous cross-court backhand return after losing the two points in-between with unforced errors. A nice cross-court forehand volley from Kalovelonis got his team a break point, and he converted that chance the same way, ending the best rally of the match after 14 shots. Statham and Lock were still a game ahead, and the New Zealander hit a fabulous forehand winner through the middle of the court off Haliak, and a beautiful forehand winner down the tramlines from Lock gave his team two set points. Kalovelonis saved the first with what was probably the shot of the match, a fantastic forehand volley to end a great short rally, and he smashed away a volley to win the deciding point.
Kalovelonis won the first point of Lock’s game with a beautiful forehand winner down the left tramline, and his beautiful backhand winner down the same alley got the score to deuce, where Lock smashed away a volley to win the deciding point. Kalovelonis started with two aces, and lost just the first game point as he secured a place in the tie-break. Dreadful is the only way to describe how the second seeds played the 13th game, both losing their own service points with unforced errors, as well as Statham getting forced into a return error by Haliak before mishitting a forehand straight up and out of court. At least the last point before the change of ends went to a winner, Haliak smashing away a volley to give his team six set points. Kalovelonis overhit a forehand to lose the first before Haliak hit a cross-court forehand wide. He made up for that error with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner off Statham’s next serve, and the set was over after 52 minutes.
Routine holds for Kalovelonis and Lock to start the second set were followed by the best game of the match when Haliak served, with three outstanding winners; two more that were merely good; and a forced error. It began with a beautiful backhand return down the tramlines from Lock and a nice forehand volley from Kalovelonis, with a fabulous forehand winner down the left tramline from Haliak on the third point. The forced error came when Kalovelonis had to hit a backhand volley into the net, but he won the good short rally on the next point with another nice forehand volley, and he followed that with a far better one to win the game.
Things turned to custard for the seeded pair when Statham served next, though, with two poor forehand volleys into the net from Lock being followed by a nice forehand winner down the left tramline from Kalovelonis to complete the break to love. The next three games went with serve, and that meant Statham had to hold to keep their hopes alive. Kalovelonis hit a beautiful cross-court forehand volley to start the game, and his smash into the tramlines took them to deuce, and a match point. It was fitting that the player of the match should finish it off with another brilliant winner, Kalovelonis hitting a beautiful forehand down the left tramline right into the corner. The final score was 7-6 (2), 6-2, and the match took an hour and 30 minutes.