Apart from two games in the second set, the qualifying singles match at the ATP Challenger tournament in Playford between Alex Klintcharov and Tom Fancutt didn’t have too many real highlights. There were quite a few decent rallies, but most petered out before the shot count got into double figures. Klintcharov held comfortably to start, but Fancutt needed to get through a deuce before doing the same. Klintcharov then served the only game which got to a second deuce, with four promising rallies in the space of seven points all ending with unforced errors on the seventh, eighth or ninth shot. He lost the last of those when he hit a cross-court backhand wide, and a cross-court forehand winner from Fancutt completed the first break of serve.
He gave it straight back, winning his first point before losing the next four with unforced forehand errors. Klintcharov hit a fabulous backhand winner down the line to start the next game, and went on to hold through another error from Fancutt, who then hit a beautiful cross-court backhand volley as he held serve in turn. Klintcharov followed a double fault in the next game with a fabulous backhand lob, but lost great rallies on the next two points. He sent a backhand over the baseline on the 15th shot of the first one, and was forced to hit a forehand into the tramlines after 17 shots in the second. Fancutt then forced him to hit a backhand volley into the tramlines to complete another break of serve. The last three games in the set all went with serve, Fancutt hitting two aces in each of his, and the last of those ended the set after 38 minutes.
The second set started with a hiss and a roar, with good short rallies on each of the first three points. The last of those was won by a fabulous backhand drop shot from Fancutt, who then created a break point with a fabulous cross-court forehand return. Klintcharov saved that with a beautiful cross-court forehand drop shot, but he was forced into an error to lose the advantage before Fancutt completed another break of serve by ending a good rally with a cross-court forehand winner.
Fancutt then held to love twice, Klintcharov losing just one point in the intervening game. The New Zealander’s next game had three good rallies, but he lost all of them, Fancutt’s overhead volley winning the last one to get another break of serve. Klintcharov did hit another fabulous backhand lob in the next game before saving a match point with an unreturnable serve. He went on to hold when Fancutt found the net on the next two points, but the Australian was still going to be serving for the match. Every time he got to the ad court he served an ace, the last of those being his eleventh, and that was the one which won the match. The final score was 6-4, 6-2, and they had been on court for an hour and 12 minutes.