Australasian Spring - Sydney #3

A very hot day greeted the quarter finalists of the Futures tournament at Homebush, with hot westerly winds predicted to increase throughout the day to almost gale force proortions, and send the temperature to a high of 37 degrees. An early start for the matches was scheduled and when Greg took to the court at 10am the temperature was a warm above 30 degrees and the wind was starting to blow.His opponent was 17 year old Blake Mott from the Wollongong, just south of Sydney, a promising junior player who was part of the National High performance Academy at Homebush and, at 15 years old, represented Australia in the Junior Davis Cup. Alikened to Lleyton Hewitt in playing style, Mott has an accurate serve and a consistent back court game which makes his opponent play a lot of shots each point, creating errors by his opponent and opportunities for Mott to finish the point off.
Greg started serving and after holding serve broke young Mott to lead 2-0. Greg could not consolidate the break in his next service game, allowing Mott to break back and wrest the initiative away from Greg, then holding serve to level at 2-2. Greg tried all he could to force another break point opportunity but Mott held firm with some good serving. 

Blake Mott

Games went with serve to 4-4 then Greg, serving with the last game of the old balls, was forced to break-point by Mott, who converted to take a 5-4 lead. Greg managed to save one set point in Mott's next game but was unable to prevent Mott serving out the set 6-4, for a one set lead.
Again serving first, with the new balls, Greg held serve, broke Mott as he did in the first set but this time consolidated, holding his serve to go 3-0 up. At this point in the set Mott took an injury time out but did not appear in trouble on resumption of play, quickly serving to 40-0. Mott battled gamely to get the service break back but this time it was Greg who held firm, games going to 5-3, with Greg serving for the set. Mott then saved two set points to force Greg to deuce and then a break-point. Greg responded, saving the break-point and closing out the set 6-3. One set all... and the temperature was building but the wind was strong and blustery.
The third set commenced with young Mott serving first and he seized the moment, holding serve and then breaking Greg to lead 3-0. Greg held serve to get to 1-3,  then Mott held for 1-4 and things were looking ominous for Greg. But he dug deep and responded to the situation, holding serve for 2-4 and then forced Mott to face two break points at 15-40 in the next game, converting at the first opportunity, to get back on-serve at 3-4. He still had work to do, to consolidate, and he did so to level the score at 4-4. Nervous service games challenged Greg at both 4-5 down and 5-6 down but he played solid tennis to get the set to the tie-break at 6-6.
In the tie-break Mott, serving first, grabbed an early lead, getting a mini-break to lead 3-1. Greg hit back and ensured they swopped ends at 3-3, holding the next serve to lead 4-3. Mott held his two serves to get to 4-4, then 5-4 and have Greg serving to catch up and stay on serve. Greg did so, levelling at 5-5, then going 6-5 up, putting pressure on Mott to hold serve to stay in the match, at match point. A relieved Greg won that point and the tie-break 7-5, winning the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5).
It was a very closely contested match, with Mott playing the match of his life, swinging freely with no pressure on him, serving well and playing consistent tennis from the baseline, forcing Greg to come up with the winners. Greg used all his experience to stay close to Mott, to create opportunites and take them, in getting out of jail, and winning at the death, to advance to the semi finals of the singles. Whew that was close.