Third seed Renzo Olivo held serve to start his first round qualifying match this morning against Rubin Statham in the Uruguay Open, an ATP Challenger tournament in Montevideo. Statham ended the first good rally of the match with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner, but gave away a break point when he hit a forehand over the baseline. Olivo pounced on the chance, winning a good short rally with a beautiful backhand drop shot to get the first break of serve.
Statham did even better, breaking straight back to love after winning the third point with a beautiful backhand down the line, and then held serve to level the scores. A really great rally was developing in the next game before umpire Tiago Sturmer stopped it after 15 shots when a ballboy standing beside his chair dropped a ball. Unfortunately it happened just as Olivo was about to play his next shot and, as bad luck would have it, he was looking pretty much straight at the ballboy when it happened. The rally on the replayed point went for only seven shots, being won by a cross-court forehand from Olivo, and he went on to record a comfortable hold.
Statham started the next game with a fabulous backhand winner down the line which landed in the corner, and was up 40-15 when Olivo won another good rally with a beautiful forehand drop shot. A double fault took them to deuce, and Statham lost great rallies on both the next two points when he hit unforced errors over the baseline. Olivo had to get through two deuces before winning the next game, but it should never have got that far. A great rally on the first point looked to have ended after 16 shots when Statham’s backhand landed over the baseline, but it wasn’t called out, and Olivo was so distracted that he just hit the ball away into the tramlines. I was actually surprised that he didn’t ask the umpire to check the mark, because it was so clearly out. Olivo followed that with a second serve ace, and eventually won the game when he forced Statham into consecutive errors. They both held serve to love next up, and that was enough for Olivo to complete the set after 34 minutes.
Olivo lost a great rally on the last point of Statham’s opening service game in the second set when he hit a forehand over the baseline on the 16th shot, and then lost his own serve when he finished with a double fault and an overhit forehand. They came after Statham had won the third point with a fabulous cross-court forehand return that landed on the sideline. Statham then held to love, the highlight being a beautiful cross-court backhand lob, and Olivo hit two lovely inside-out forehand winners on the way to holding serve. He started the next game with a fabulous cross-court backhand lob, but it was the only point he won before having another comfortable hold of his own.
Statham’s next two service games were the longest two of the match, at just over eight minutes each, and they both had six rallies that varied from good to fantastic. Statham lost the second of the rallies in the first game with an overhit backhand, and that gave away two break points. He saved those, as he did a third after the deuce, but the last four points in the game were terrific. Olivo got the advantage after the second deuce with a fabulous cross-court backhand lob, which was so good that Statham applauded, but it was fitting that the best rally of the match should end after 21 shots with the shot of the match, an incredible forehand drop volley from Statham. Two more great rallies followed after the third deuce, but Olivo was forced into errors to end both and let Statham hold serve.
Olivo had a much more comfortable hold next up, despite Statham winning a good short rally with a beautiful overhead backhand volley, but that still left Statham serving for the set. He won another good rally with a beautiful forehand down the left sideline, and forced Olivo into a return error to give himself a first set point. He blew that chance with a forehand into the net to end a good rally, but got another when he forced Olivo to hit another return over the baseline. Olivo saved that one as well, with a nice overhead volley to end another good rally, and then got his first break point with an easy forehand winner off a drop shot that bounced too much. Statham saved that by forcing Olivo to find the net on the 14th shot of another fantastic rally, and gave himself a third set point with a nice backhand volley.
Olivo saved that one too, before getting the advantage again when he ended another good rally with a beautiful backhand volley down the line, and he finally got the break back when he forced Statham to hit a backhand over the baseline to end the sixth and last good rally of the game. He then held to love, and the scores were level for the first time in the set. Statham then had to save two break points after being forced to hit a forehand into the net, but got safely through those two, and two more, to guarantee himself at least a tie-break. That was where they ended up when Olivo again held to love, finishing with a fabulous cross-court forehand winner, but there was still plenty of drama to come.
They started with two great rallies, and followed those with three beautiful winners, but Olivo gave away the first mini-break on the last point before they changed ends when he hit a forehand over the baseline. Statham won both his serves to give himself three more set points, but hit a backhand into the net to lose the first and mishit a cross-court forehand return to land the second in the tramlines. The serve came back to Statham for the last of them, but Olivo was able to save that as well when he hit an easy forehand winner through the right side of the court. That made them all square as they changed ends again, but disaster struck for Statham when he had to turn and reach high for an overhead backhand shot and the ball flicked off the end of the racquet.
That gave Olivo a match point, and it was only fitting, given the way the match had gone, that they should end with another fantastic rally. This one lasted for 20 shots before Statham caught the net cord with a backhand shot, and the ball bounced back on his side to end the match after an hour and 38 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 7-6 (6).