McLachlan into semis as dream run continues
THE situation could not have been more tense when Ben McLachlan served for the match in yesterday’s Australian Open quarterfinal.
Holding a 65 lead in a thirdset tiebreak, all eyes were on the 25yearold from Queenstown as he and partner JanLeppard Struff looked to clinch a spot in the men’s doubles semifinals. Clinch it they did.
After a fault on his first serve, he found his mark.
From there a smash by Struff proved the winner to secure an upset 64, 67, 76 win over the world No 1 duo of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo at Margaret Court Arena.
It was a show of calmness under pressure as world no 73 McLachlan continued his dream run.
Indeed it is now hard to believe he had felt he was a 5050 chance of getting into the draw.
The key moment came in the very first game.
McLachlan and Struff broke the serve of their more favoured counterparts and did not drop a point until the third game.
Kubot and Melo were errorprone early on, while McLach lan and Struff were tidy in everything they did.
However, Kubot and Melo fought back and secured their own break after a long deuce.
McLachlan and Struff negated that straight away though, breaking back to set up a first set win.
Late in that set, McLachlan took a medical timeout, in which he appeared to have his ankle strapped. If it impacted on him, he did not let it show.
Neither side gave anything away from that point on.
Both held their own serves, as Kubot and Melo became more clinical and errors began to creep into McLachlan and Struff’s game.
That could have been expected though, as they were forced to hit more winners from the second set onwards.
However, they did what they had to.
Struff demonstrated power throughout, while McLachlan showed his quick reactions close in to the net.
With nothing splitting the duos at the end of the second set, the favourites pulled one back to win the tiebreak.
It had stayed even at 44, before Kubot and elo finished the stronger to claim the second set.
The third set was similarly tense, nothing splitting either pair.
It was a backhand from Struff which proved the tiebreak’s defining moment.
With the score at 32, he split his opponents down the middle on a return, taking a crucial point against the serve.
From there they held their nerve, McLachlan hitting the key winner to take it to 63, before serving for the win at 65.
MELBOURNE: Littleknown Kyle Edmund is astonishingly one win away from supplanting threetime major champion Andy Murray as the British No 1 after surging into the Australian Open semifinals.
Unseeded and largely unheralded heading into the first major of the year, Edmund dumped Bulgarian world No 3 Grigor Dimitrov from the Open yesterday with a 64, 36, 63, 64 quarterfinal boilover.
The 23yearold now stands just two wins away from what would be a hugely improbable triumph at a tournament in which Murray has five times reached the final, without ever lifting the title.
Edmund has already created history as the first British man other than Murray to reach the Australian Open semifinals in 41 years.
Not since John Lloyd in 1977 has anyone but Murray achieved the feat.
‘‘It’s an amazing feeling — I’m very happy,’’ said Edmund.
‘‘With these things you’re so emotionally engaged that you don’t really take it in. You don’t really enjoy yourself, so just at the end . . . I just really tried to enjoy the moment.
The crucial break yesterday came in the penultimate game of the fourth set when Edmund successfully challenged a backhand by Dimitrov that was initially called in, only for HawkEye to show it had landed fractionally outside the sideline.
The Brit served out the contest in the following game but he was made to wait an agonising extra few seconds before being declared the victor after the Bulgarian made an unsuccessful challenge on match point.
It’s a position he has handled with aplomb.
‘‘Wow!’’ tweeted Murray after Edmund became only the sixth British man in the Open era to reach the last four at a grand slam.
After chalking up the biggest win of her career, Elise Mertens has set her sights on following in the footsteps of idol Kim Clijsters and taking the Australian Open title home to Belgium.
Playing for the first time in the Open, the unseeded Mertens made her maiden grand slam semifinal by shocking world No 4 Elina Svitolina 64, 60 on Rod Laver Arena yesterday.
Svitolina was a pretournament title favourite, having won nine matches straight to open her summer, and was in line to take over the world No 1 ranking with success at Melbourne Park.
Ranked outside the top 100 12 months ago, Mertens said she would not have believed it if told before the tournament that a finalfour berth was hers.
‘‘I’d laugh a little bit,’’ Mertens, who had never previously beaten a topfive opponent or made it past a grand slam third round, said.
‘‘Everything is possible in tennis but of course semis is ‘wow’.’’
On the back of her second Hobart International title, the 22yearold produced fearless tennis, hitting 26 winners in a dominant display.
‘‘It was a really great match. I played really well, so I’m really happy,’’ Mertens said.
Hampered by a hip injury, Ukrainian Svitolina, one of the best movers on tour, was unable to respond with her service game particularly affected.
A devastated Svitolina, who despite her ranking was also making her first appearance in a grand slam fourth round, said she had been restricted in her play and training since winning the Brisbane International.
‘‘I start to feel it actually after the final in Brisbane and then it was getting worse and then was up and down,’’ the 23yearold said.
‘‘I couldn’t now play my game, because my tennis is so physical so I have to be ready 100%.’’