The first round match at the Sydney Challenger between Rubin Statham and Blake Mott was full of highlights, with plenty of great individual winners and a ton of terrific rallies. Mott came in as a Lucky Loser to replace fourth seed James Duckworth, who withdrew from the tournament citing fatigue as the reason. Statham hit two beautiful backhand winners down the line in the opening game, the second of which created a break point, but Mott saved that when Statham hit a forehand over the baseline, and a backhand into the tramlines from the New Zealander to end a great rally let Mott hold serve.
They each held serve easily next up, but then came the longest game of the match. The only one to go past two deuces, this one had five, and it ended when Statham forced Mott into two backhand return errors after a tick over eight minutes on the clock. Statham then hit a fabulous forehand return off Mott, but the Australian’s fabulous inside-out forehand winner into the corner to end the game was one of the standout shots of the match.
Mott then hit a beautiful cross-court backhand winner to end a good rally when Statham served next, and a fabulous cross-court backhand passing shot followed that. The great rally on the next point ended when Statham hit a backhand into the net, and he gave away the break when he hooked a forehand wide. Mott hit two beautiful winners on the way to holding to love in the next game, and Statham’s best shot in the next game was a beautiful cross-court backhand volley. The earlier break meant that Mott was now serving for the set, and he finished with a simple tapped volley to end a short rally. The set had taken 38 minutes.
Statham needed to save a break point and get through two deuces before holding serve to start the second set, but Mott held to love, finishing with a fantastic backhand drop shot that landed on the sideline. The shot of the match came from Statham in the next game, a wonderful backhand passing shot down the line, but he finished the game with three unforced errors to lose his serve. Mott held serve again next up, despite consecutive double faults in the middle of the game, and Statham hit a fabulous backhand to lob to end a fantastic short rally on the way to winning the next game. Mott ended a hold to love with his only ace of the match, and then hit a beautiful inside-out forehand winner to finish a great short rally on Statham’s first point. He also won the fantastic rally on the last point to break Statham’s serve again.
Statham got that break straight back, courtesy of unforced errors from Mott after a deuce, and then held serve the same way after Mott had got to deuce with a fabulous cross-court forehand winner. Having the advantage of an extra break meant that Mott was still going to be serving for the match and, although he started with a double fault , he followed that with a fabulous inside-out forehand winner into the corner. Not to be outdone, Statham hit a stunning forehand return down the line, but he ended the great 16 shot rally on the last point with a cross-court backhand into the tramlines. The final score was 6-3, 6-4, and the match lasted for an hour and 22 minutes.