Steen Kirby, Tennis East Coast
Tennys Sandgren beat Denis Kudla 6-3 7-6, in a match that lived up to its pre-match billing as a battle, meaning the former Tennessee Volunteer and freshly minted top 200 player has his spot in the Sunday final in Norcross. Sandgren was pushed back early as Kudla was getting a lot of depth on his shots and causing Tennys to have to return from a disadvantageous position at the back of court. He would turn it around though as Kudla could not maintain his style of deep hitting without spraying errors, and though they had long back and forth service games, Sandgren would be the more consistent one and take the first set 6-3.
In the second, after Sandgren called the trainer for some work on his knee, Kudla would sprint out to a lead up 5-3 and serving to force a 3rd set at one point. Denis was connecting on his backhand better and cleaning up his errors, while also serving well, but he could not seal the deal as Sandgren kept calm, holding serve and breaking back to keep the match in the 2nd set. Both players would have chances to either finish the match or force a 3rd late in the 2nd set but it would end up in a tiebreak after some points that were multifacted battles with power, movement, forehands, backhands, slice and volleys. Sandgren came to the net more than Kudla as part of his gameplan and when he could get to the passing shot in time it worked in his favor.
In the tiebreak, Sandgren and Kudla traded minibreaks back and forth in a condensed version of what the entire match had been up to that point, but eventually Sandgren would lock down his serve and after a controversial line call gave him an ace for a 6-5 tiebreak lead. Kudla would exclaim “oh my god, USTA refs, worse than French refs” as part of a monologue in frustration. One point later Tennys would seal the deal after Kudla made yet another return error, an issue that kept spoiling his play all afternoon.
Steve Johnson will be Sandgren’s opponent in the final. He had a much easier time against Chase Buchanan, who seemed outgunned. Johnson won 6-0 6-4 after blitzing past a meek Buchanan in the first and dealing with any and all resistance he put up in the second set, holding his serve with consistency.
Tennis Atlantic 