Aussies’ day out in the quarters

Two Australians -- one on the centre court and the other adjacent to it on court 1 -- battled simultaneously under the late February afternoon sun at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) courts here on Friday.

As a 31-year-old James Duckworth got ready to take on the challenge on the showpiece court of the three-court arena, it was his namesake -- 19-year-old James McCabe -- prepping for an onslaught on the other, during their quarterfinal matches of the Bengaluru Open.

Standing in their way was a ‘vamos’ yelling Bulgarian Dimitar Kuzmanov against the older James and an ‘allez’ shouting Frenchman Harold Mayot facing the younger one.

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And in the next hour and a half or so that followed, both the Aussies would go on to mostly dominate, partly struggle to fall behind but fight back to eventually notch up convincing victories in their respective matches to move into the semifinal stage.

Except for a few glitches towards the end of the first set, 31-year-old Duckworth bulldozed his way to a 6-4, 6-1 win over eighth seed Kuzmanov of Bulgaria. The 2020 champion here looked as solid in every department as he has been throughout the week. With a straight-forward win in sight for Duckworth on the centre court, drama on Court 1 began to unfold.

McCabe, a qualifier, came out with all guns blazing to take the first set 6-3 against Mayot. Just when the Aussie teen seemed to be getting close to the finish line, his 21-year-old opponent staged a fightback from a break down to equalise 5-5 and hold serve to go up 6-5.

The 19-year-old McCabe, who admitted to nerves kicking in towards the end of the match in the post-match press conference, stuck to the basics and won the tie-breaker with a thumping ace down the line to win the second 7-6.

While both the Sydney residents will be happy with the turn of events of the day, they will return to the centre court on Saturday to face each other in the semifinals.

Another Australian, Purcell defeated fifth-seeded Italian Luca Nardi 6-2, 6-0. He will meet Serbian Hamad Medjedovic, who thrashed top-seed Chun-hsin Tseng of Taipei 6-1, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

Results: Singles (quarterfinals): 2-James Duckworth (Aus) bt 8-Dimitar Kuzmanov (Bul) 6-4, 6-1; James McCabe (Aus) bt Harold Mayot (Fra) 6-3, 7-6; Hamad Medjedovic (Srb) bt 1-Chun-Hsin Tseng (Tpe) 6-1, 6-2; Max Purcell (Aus) bt 5-Luca Nardi (Ita) 6-2, 6-0.

Doubles (semifinals, Indians unless mentioned): Yunseong Chung (Kor)/ Yu Hsiou Hsu (Tpe) bt 1-Marc Polmans (Aus)/ Max Purcell(Aus) 6-4, 6-4; Anirudh Chandrasekar/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Arjun Khade/ Maximilian Neuchrist (Aut) 7-6 (1), 4-6, 10-2.