Finn Reynolds and James Watt have each partnered Kody Pearson in the past, and they’re also well-acquainted with Yuta Shimizu, so there weren’t going to be any surprises when the four players took to the court for the doubles final at the ATP Challenger tournament in Granby. Watt held comfortably to start before Reynolds got the highlights show underway with a beautiful inside-out forehand return into the tramlines. A mistake by Pearson gave away break points and, although the first was saved when Watt hit a forehand volley straight down, Shimizu overhit a backhand volley to lose the game.
Reynolds then held to love before the Japanese player took centre stage. Just like Reynolds, he’s a left-hander who plays in the deuce court, but he didn’t serve nearly as well as his New Zealand counterpart. He was going well enough at 40-15, but hit a forehand wide before Pearson was forced to send a backhand volley long to bring up the first deuce in the match. Shimizu and Reynolds batted the ball back and forth on the deciding point until Watt got involved, but his forehand volley went into the net.
Watt then held again before it was Pearson’s turn to get taken to deuce, where Watt was forced to hit an inside-out forehand wide to lose the deciding point. Shimizu hit a beautiful forehand winner down the right-hand tramline in the next game before holding comfortably when it was his turn to serve, although the latter game did feature a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines from Reynolds. The early break meant that Watt was now serving for the set, and it was no muss, no fuss, as he held to love to wrap it up after 29 minutes.
Pearson started the second set better than he had the first, holding comfortably before Watt again held to love. The only game in the match with multiple standout winners was the next one, where Pearson started with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley and Reynolds added another glorious forehand return down the tramlines. That created a break point, but backhand return errors by Watt on both the next point and the decider meant that Shimizu was able to hold.
Reynolds held easily again, needing a second serve for the first time in the match, and three smashes from Watt saw the balls bounce out of the courts and into the church grounds next door. That has been a regular occurrence on this court all week. Reynolds started the next game with the shot of the match, a stunning cross-court backhand lob that might just have touched the top of Shimizu’s racquet on the way down.
Pearson had to save a break point after a poor overhead backhand volley from his partner, and did so by acing Watt out wide, and he won the deciding point for himself with a beautiful forehand winner down the tramlines. Watt held comfortably again to level the scores for the third time, but Shimizu lost his serve when Pearson hit a forehand volley into the net after his partner had saved the first break point by hammering a cross-court forehand volley off Watt’s racquet.
The best rally in the match came next, and it would have gone a lot longer than 12 shots if Shimizu hadn’t hit a backhand volley into the net. Reynolds held easily enough before Shimizu made a better fist of the fabulous rally which started Pearson’s game, winning it with a cross-court forehand volley. Reynolds added a lovely cross-court backhand return into the tramlines, but the Australian held to ensure that Watt would have to serve out the match.
Another terrific rally saw Shimizu come out on top with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley, but he was forced into a return error to give away two Championship points. One was enough, Reynolds smashing away the winning volley to end the contest after an hour and three minutes. The final score was 6-3, 6-4, and both Reynolds (provisionally 123) and Watt (provisionally 134) will improve their career-high rankings even further when the new lists come out on Monday.