Saville/Whittington rally past Novak/Shyla into the second round of Boys’ Doubles – US Open 2011
Second seeds Luke Saville and Andrew Whittington of Australia fought back after an early scare to beat Austrian/Belarusian pair of Dennis Novak and Yaraslau Shyla 5-7, 6-3, 10-5 in the first round of boys’ doubles event at the
US Open in New York on Monday. The Australians took an hour and nine minutes to beat their opponents in a tough match.
Novak and Shyla hit the first blow as they broke the Australians in the opening game of the match and held their serve in the next game to grab a 2-0 lead. Saville and Whittington broke back in the fourth game, equalising the score
at 2-2. The Austrian/Belarusian team took the lead once again as they broke the Australians in the seventh game but once again they failed to capitalise on the break of serve, losing their serve immediately to square off the score at 4-4. Novak and Shyla broke
their opponents for the third time in the eleventh game and this time they succeeded in holding their serve in the next game to seal the set 7-5.
The Austrian/Belarusian pair delivered two aces and kept their first serve percentage at 68 percent, winning eighteen of the 23 first service points in the opening set. Novak and Shyla neither committed any double fault nor did
they hit an unforced error in the first set. The Austrian/Belarusian team converted three of the seven break points they received on Saville and Whittington’s serve and saved one of the three break points they faced on their own serve in the opening set.
Saville/Whittington and the Austrian/Belarusian made a steady start in the second set as they did not lose their serve in the first six games to take the score to 3-3. The Australians dominated the proceedings after that as they
won three consecutive games, breaking Novak and Shyla in the eighth game and holding their serve in the next game to claim the set 6-3.
The second seeded team served very well as they delivered 83 percent of the first serves, clinching an incredible seventeen of the nineteen points on them in the second set. Saville and Whittington converted eight of the 21 returns
into points in the second set.
The Australians took an early lead in the match tie-break with the help of some aggressive forehand shots. They capitalised on the lead to win it 10-5.
Saville and Whittington will take on Kyle Edmund and Nikoa Milojevic or Julien Cagnina and Enzo Couacaud in the second round.
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