“We train together so I know her game really well,” Vickery said. “I think we were both waiting to see who would be aggressive first.”
Min took the second set in a tiebreak to force a decisive third set. Vickery fell behind 1-3, and needed to change tactics.
“I tried to be more aggressive because she was controlling most of the points in the third and I was doing more running,” Vickery said. “So I was trying to be more aggressive and take more control. Then I ended up making some tough shots and got my confidence back up.”
Vickery won the match, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4, to earn a spot in the final, ensuring that an 18-year-old woman will be in the Australian Open.
The top seed on the men’s side, Denis Kudla, reached the second round at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He went up against Tennys Sandgren, who’s playing the best tennis of his life. Sandgren came out playing well, taking the first set off Kudla. But in the second set, Kudla raised his game.
“I could tell from the first ball in the second set, he looked like a new player to me,” Sandgren said. “He really put it on me there. I got broken, missed a volley and maybe got a little tight. He took advantage of that and got up 5-2. I was a little lucky to get out of my service game to get to 3-5. And then I thought, ‘give it your best shot here at 3-5 and maybe you can get a break and get back in the set.’ And I was able to raise my game a little bit.”
After Sandgren worked his way back into the set, he had some opportunities to get ahead at five all, being up 15-40 on Kudla’s serve. But Kudla took his game to another level to go up 6-5. Sandgren held his serve to reach a tiebreaker.
“The tiebreaker was a dogfight—I was up and then he came back to go on top,” Sandgren said. “But I was pretty proud of myself that I stayed calm and was able to play some good tennis.”
Sandgren took the match, 6-3, 7-6 (5), making it another year without a top-seeded champion. He knows what’s coming in tomorrrow’s final, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy.
“He’s serving great and hits his forehand huge, which is a tough combination,” Sandgren said. “So I’ll have to cover the court really well and play my best tennis if I want to win.”
The man with the big serve and huge forehand came out of the match between Steve Johnson and Chase Buchanan. Johnson didn’t drop a game in the first set, but the match reset at as soon as that set ended.
“My momentum was done after the first set was over,” Johnson said. “It’s not like the set keeps going to seven, eight and nine. Chase is a great player and he knows that. He got up, broke me and played a great game. I fought myself in the second set on his serve—had break points, didn’t get it, break points, didn’t get it.”
But Johnson pulled his game together in the end, 6-0, 6-4, to advance to tomorrow’s final, which is best-of-five sets. Johnson has some experience playing in that format; Sandgren doesn’t.
“I actually never have played three out of five—I really want to though,” Sandgren said. “I hope it goes five; I really want to play five. I don’t know if you guys want to be here for five hours, but I want to see how I stack up in a long match like that.”
Johnson said the match is a sprint, not a marathon.
“It’s going to be a lot of ups and downs and it’s going to be whoever can maintain it mentally and not let it get to him,” Johnson said. “Tennys has a great serve and he’s in shape. The guy can run for days and I’ve seen it. It’s going to be a battle.”
Tomorrow we’ll see if Sandgren can keep running to Australia.
