John-Patrick Smith stuns Sergei Bubka to reach the final – Winnetka 2012 CH
World number 298, John-Patrick Smith, stunned the 25-year-old Ukrainian, Sergei Bubka, to reach the final of the Winnetka Challenger on the eve of Friday. It was a terrific match-up that extended to three-sets. The Aussie qualifier
lost the opening set 2-6 but bounced back emphatically to take the following two sets 6-1, 6-4.
Bubka was forced to play complete his quarter-final clash and contest his semi-final battle on the same day due to rain. So, he was very tired at the start of the semi-final as well having played a complete set already in the day.
It was expected that he will lose to the inferior ranked Aussie qualifier who showed classic strength and courage to reach the final of the Challenger tournament all the way from the qualifiers.
The 23-year-old Aussie started the match with a serve hold and tied down his opponent in the following game with two back-to-back winners down the line. However, he couldn’t break serve to lead the scores.
Bubka fought back into the contest and broke serve against the run of play to stun the qualifier and took a lead of 2-1. He comfortably held his serve to extend the lead and grabbed another break in the fifth game to further push
the scores at 4-1 in his favour.
It was looking pretty ominous for the Aussie qualifier and everyone thought that it will be just a matter of time before the Ukrainian will grab the final spot. However, the things completely changed in the second set as Smith
won a breakpoint in the fourth game.
He continued to impress his fans with another breakthrough in the sixth game that mounted a lead of 5-1 on his rival. An easy serve hold closed down the second set proceedings and enforced the third set into play.
Bubka lost the opening game of the final set and a big roar from the crowd suggested that they were expecting a big upset in the making.
Once again, the Ukrainian starlet was under the cosh in the third game but escaped the scare after saving a couple of breakpoints to contain the trail. No breakpoints in the following stages of the match meant a win for the Aussie
qualifier who will contest against the 169th ranked Lithuanian, Richard Berankis, in the final.
Berankis outfoxed the local representative and the superior ranked, Ryan Sweeting, to book a spot in the final of the tournament.
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