Results - Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Witten Hangs on to Defeat Healey

At 40-15, double match point, the tension rose above expectations. Healey rushed the net after a return of serve right down the middle without much on it... not exactly the ideal return to apply pressure on Witten's next attempted pass. Witten did feel it and powered a backhand into the net. 40-30, tension level up again. Risky play Nathan, big gamble there. 40-30... again, Healey gets the serve back to the middle... huge gamble that Witten will again be unable to come up with the pass. On that 2nd attempt, Witten gets the same look and is able to nail it to Healey's backhand side. Healey dives, but no real chance... too much pace, too much angle.

Jesse Witten (USA) defeated Nathan Healey (AUS) in a tightly contested match 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4. Both players held serve in the first set, but in the tiebreaker Healy got off to a slow start, losing the first point with a double fault, then dropping the next 3 points to go down 0-4. The set looked like it might get interesting when Healey, down 6-1 in the tiebreaker, won 3 points in a row to get to 6-4, but Witten put the next point away to clinch the set.

The second set began with Healey breaking Witten’s serve. The next game featured several deuce points before Healy sealed the game with an ace, a point hotly contested by Witten. Witten’s emotions clearly affected his game for the remainder of the set, Healey was able to gain 2 additional service breaks for an easy 6-1 win.

By the third set, Witten appeared to have regained his composure, and broke Healey’s serve at love in the third game. In the last point of the third game, Healey learned the hard way not to dive for the ball on a hard court, cutting the palm of his playing hand while going for a passing shot, prompting a blood medical timeout by the chair umpire. After the 10 minute timeout, Witten once again broke Healeys serve, putting Healey down 2 breaks. Healey was able to get one break back the next game, but both players held serve the remainder of the set and sealing the win for Witten.

In other singles action today:

• Lukas Lacko (SVK) defeated Ryler De Heart (USA) 6-4, 6-4
• Paul Capdeville (CHI) defeated Gary Lugassy (FRA) 6-4, 6-3
• Paul is the number 1 seed in the tournament.
• Travis Helgeson (USA) defeated Nick Lindahl (AUS) 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4

In doubles action today:

• Carsten Ball (AUS)/Travis Rettenmaier (USA) defeated Gastao Elias (POR)/Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR) 7-5, 6-4
  Anthony Assal (USA)/Nebojsa Peric (SCG) defeated Ilia Bozoljac SRB)/Lukas Lacko (SVK) 5-6 (Retired) Assal and Peric moved in the doubles main draw as Lucky Losers when the doubles team of Alexandre Kudryavtsev (RUS)/Lukas Rosol (CZE) dropped out.
• Brian Battistone (USA)/Dann Battistone (USA) defeated Travis Helgeson (USA)/Eric Nunez (USA) 7-6(3), 6-4
  Marcus Fugate (USA)/Rylan Rizza (USA) defeated Paul Capdeville (CHI)/Vincent Millot (FRA) 6-3, 6-4
• Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/Tomas Zib(CZE) defeated William Mendler (USA)/Kristopher Shumway (USA) 6-3, 6-0 Mendler and Shumway are from Towanda Pa., and had a large cheering section, but lost in straight sets to the number 1 doubles seed.