History boys
Rubin: rocking the Classic Ross: 20th century man
Rubin Statham’s amazing ASB Classic win yesterday was the product of a new pre-season regime, plenty of match play leading into the event and a change in strategy midway through the match — after seeing a dire statistic on the stadium scoreboard.
Statham upset the odds in incredible fashion, defeating the world No 25 and sixth seed Hyeon Chung 7-5, 6-3 for the biggest win of his career.
For the 31-year-old, who is ranked more than 300 places below the South Korean (world No 360), it was just his second career victory in an ATP main draw match.
Chung, who reached the Australian Open semifinals last year, beating six-time champion Novak Djokovic on the way, looked like he was cruising to victory at one point, as he led 5-1 in the first set against a struggling Statham.
“There is a good percentage of first sets over when you are down 5-1 but I just hung in there, and clawed my way back as I have done in the past,” said Statham. “I tried to not think about it too much and just execute well. I was honestly thinking about the second set and how I could perform a bit better there and go from there.”
But the New Zealander found a way back, helped by a startling statistic about his serve, as he glanced up at the scoreboard during a change of ends.
“I sat there and looked up at the screen and saw the points won on second serve percentage . . . and it was about 18 per cent,” said Statham.
“It was nice to see that statistic on the board . . . that gave me the wakeup call and indicated, ‘let’s make a few first serves here, Rubin, and go from there.’
“It ended up I played some great points to get the break back and things went my way from there.”
As he greeted plenty of wellwishers in the players’ lounge, Statham was understandably thrilled about the achievement.
“It’s been 17 years as a professional and one of my better wins, if not my best win,” said Statham. “I’m happy
with the way I played and to start the year well. I’d had a lot of matches moving into this tournament.
“I feel more comfortable with my game and clarity of style. I’ve got the shots, just believing and executing on the day. I think my lead-in to this event was spot on and countless hours from my team to prepare me for maybe my last ASB was really well done and it showed.”
Statham held his nerve at 5-3 in the second set, serving out the match to the joy of a rapturous crowd.
The players’ balcony was also packed, as players and ATP officials had rushed out to watch the closing stages, sensing a historic occasion.
In hot afternoon conditions in Auckland, Statham made a nervous start. It wasn’t a surprise, as he was playing in front of a packed centre court in Auckland for the first time in years and was also trying to adjust to Chung’s level.
He was broken twice and soon found himself down 1-5, and the set looked all but gone before his dramatic comeback.
At 4-5 down there was a brief break in play, as Statham, in the process of diving for a forehand volley jammed his right hand under the racquet and his entire body weight forced it against the ground.
After being taped up, Statham returned to action and broke Chung again, to force two set points.
He converted the second, as the crowd began to sense they were witnessing something special.
The second set was an incredibly tense affair but the Kiwi always looked more confident on serve.
A break put him up 5-2, and though Chung then held to force Statham to serve out, the Kiwi was ice cool.
Kiwi Michael Venus and South African partner Raven Klaasen had a convincing 6-3, 6-3 win over Dominic Inglot and Franko Skugor in 67 minutes.
The 2018 Wimbledon finalists were a class above for much of the match, with Venus a standout on serve, while Klaasen’s movement and touch impressed.
“It was solid,” said Venus. “We came through the tight points, we won a lot of the close points. There are still some things we can touch up on, so we will get back out on the court and back to work [today].”
In other matches, young French qualifier Ugo Humbert (world No 98) was impressive in disposing of Uruguayan veteran Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 6-1, while German Peter Gojowczyk also progressed at the expense of Guido Pella.