Upsets at the British Challenge
Published on: Jun 26, 2013
Ricardo Smith was in his element today and could hardly do anything wrong. The play was always “full throttle” and I think Bryn Sayers was a little taken aback by the way Ricardo started playing and could not find an answer. Ricardo has played very few tournaments in the past few years but this is about to change and with making the finals of this new tournament, he will not need any more encouragement in knowing this is the right decision. Ricardo was all power today, but when the moment called for soft hands and control his play was immaculate. The score was 6/5 6/4 1/6 6/4.
While the spectators were recovering from the upset of watching the No. 1 seed being disposed of, they were replenishing their glasses and drawing breath as the second semi-final was beginning – Ben Matthews v Chris Chapman. The general feeling was it could go either way, with people perhaps edging in favour of Matthews. It was Chapman’s night though in straight sets, a bit close, but Chris’s task done and dusted 6/5 6/5 6/5. One of the spectators said to me afterwards “that score is worse than a triple bagel, he will feel awful”
So, the tournament has lost its two top seeds, but this is an event a long time coming. It is really good for the game, if this shift can be maintained and one can no longer say the “final will be between X and X” the game will only strengthen and the depth in tournaments increase.
The final starts on Tuesday 25th June with four sets being played, the next four sets will be on Thursday 27th and with 5 sets played or until one player has won a total of 7 sets takes place on Saturday 29th June.
Are you free on any of these days? If so come along to watch what will be an enthralling match. Tickets can be purchased here.
