Time zone differences have meant that I’ve only been able to watch one New Zealander at the ATP Challenger tournament in Cary, as I’ve been asleep each time after staying up all night watching Wimbledon. It was therefore a nice surprise to see that the doubles final featuring Finn Reynolds and James Watt would be first on court on a day that featured late stage matches from both the Challenger and women’s ITF tournaments. Their opponents were seasoned Challenger players in Patrick Harper and Trey Hilderbrand, but it was Watt who got them underway with a comfortable hold of serve.
Hilderbrand held to love before Reynolds copied his partner by losing just one point, but Harper wasn’t so lucky. A beautiful forehand return down the tramlines from Watt and a fabulous cross-court backhand from Reynolds gave the New Zealanders break points, but the latter shot had to be confirmed on the electronic replay, the system deciding that it was safe by just 3.8 mm. Watt added to the Australian’s misery by hitting another glorious return of serve, this one an inside-out forehand, to get the first break in the match.
Watt held again before it was Hilderbrand’s turn to get broken, Reynolds hitting a beautiful cross-court backhand volley before Harper was forced into two errors to lose the game. That left Reynolds serving for the set, but it didn’t work out that way. There was a fantastic rally on the first point, with Hilderbrand eventually taking the honours when he scrambled away a fabulous backhand volley into the right tramline. He had a much easier forehand volley to win the next point, and Reynolds hit an overhead volley too far before Watt did the same with a backhand lob at the end of another great rally.
Hilderbrand held to love to keep his team in the hunt, but there was more drama before they reached the end of the set. Watt smashed away a volley to give the New Zealanders four set points on his serve, but his next serve to Harper landed just wide. The electronic line calling system didn’t register it as a fault, even though the players and umpire Nick Stellabotte all agreed that it was, and it became apparent that the ELC had chosen that moment to go off-line.
It had happened in Reece Falck’s qualifying match at the start of the event, and apparently also in other matches during the week, but at least this time it was only ten minutes before it was able to be reset and tested to allow play to resume. It took just a few seconds to get the point finished, Reynolds smashing away a volley to end the set after 26 minutes of actual play.
Hilderbrand held to love to start the second set, but there was more drama after Watt aced the American to start the next game. This time it was the live scoring and the scoreboards on the ground and TV coverage which went on the blink, and they didn’t come back until in the middle of the fifth game. Watt won his second point with a beautiful forehand drop volley, and went on to hold comfortably before hitting another lovely soft volley off Harper. A forehand volley from Reynolds took them to deuce, but Watt’s forehand return of the deciding point went back over the baseline.
He added a beautiful overhead angled backhand volley as Reynolds then held to love before Hilderbrand ended up at deuce as well. That happened because he was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net at the end of a great short rally, but his serve to Watt on the deciding point took a fair chunk of the New Zealander’s racquet as it squirted away into the grandstand. Watt and Harper each held to love before Reynolds lost just one point, but that came when Watt was forced to leave a forehand volley short at the end of another fantastic rally.
He did hit a beautiful backhand return onto the baseline off Hilderbrand in the next game, but that was the only point lost by the American before he held serve with a fabulous cross-court forehand winner. Harper hit a similarly good shot to start the next game, but Watt was otherwise untroubled on the way to holding serve again. Harper continued the sequence of holds next up, but the game contained another terrific rally. This one was a bit shorter than those before, lasting just eight shots, but it ended with a wonderful backhand half-lob from Reynolds that just cleared Harper’s racquet.
The amazing rallies kept coming, with the 16 shot exchange when Reynolds served being the longest of all, but it still wasn’t the best. This one ended with a fantastic overhead volley into the left tramline from Harper which was the shot of the match, but it didn’t stop Reynolds from holding again to force a tie-break. Unforced errors saw an exchange of mini-breaks to start, with Hilderbrand hitting a cross-court forehand wide to lose his own point before Reynolds ended the incredible rally of the match after 15 shots when he hit a backhand volley into the net.
Watt lost his second point as well when forced into a forehand error by a great return from Hilderbrand, and he hit a poor angled backhand volley wide to lose Reynolds’ first point as they went to the change of ends. Hilderbrand was then forced into a return error, but won his first point with a beautiful inside-out drop volley into the tramlines. That gave the second seeds four set points, and Harper converted the first of those with a gentle forehand volley at the net to end the set after 44 minutes.
The first half of the match tie-break, in contrast, had only one lost serve, and that was when Hilderbrand was forced by a great return from Reynolds to hit a forehand into the net. He got the mini-break back after the change of ends when he hit a beautiful forehand return down the tramlines off Watt, but Reynolds then hit a beautiful cross-court backhand return off him to restore the advantage for the New Zealanders.
Reynolds won both his points before hitting an easy forehand volley off Harper, and that gave the third seeds four Championship points. They only needed the first, as Harper pushed a forehand into the net to end the match after an hour and 24 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 6-7 (2), 10-5, with Reynolds and Watt picking up their second Challenger title together in the space of a month.