The 2015 United States Tennis Association (USTA) Nielsen Pro Tennis Championship is in its fourth day with the Men’s singles semi finals. All matches have been held at the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Center, 530 Hibbard Rd., Winnetka, Illinois 60093.
2015 Nielsen Men’s Pro Tennis Championship: Semi Finals Results
The underdogs have continued their success in the tournament with no seed left higher than five. However, the match ups still had a combination of steady and experienced players with exciting younger players who may still be prone to mistake-filled play.
Semi Finals Results:
Somdev Devvarman (7) defeated Ryan Harrison (5) 6-0, 6-3
The exciting match for the day was Somdev Devvarman against Ryan Harrison. Devvarman is 30 years old and turned pro in 2008. He is currently ranked 173rd in the world and has a career high 96. While he is from India, Devvarman lives and trains in Austin, Texas. Devvarman is a veteran of the Nielsen Pro tourney having had previous success the past few years, including winning the men’s doubles two years ago with partner Jack Sock.
Ryan Harrison is 23 years old from Austin, Texas. He turned pro in 2007 and is currently ranked 129th in the world. Harrison’s career high ranking is 43rd. Harrison has been touted as the next big star in American tennis, but has not been able to break through in Grand Slam matches somewhat due to injuries.
The first set started poorly for Harrison as his serve was broken twice putting him on the defensive being quickly down 0-3. This caused Harrison to push too hard to win points and make a lot of unforced errors. Many of those errors were on his backhand that Devvarman played to all night.
The errors were too much with the steady Devvarman. Devvarman plays it safe during every point until he sees an opening and then puts it away – generally down the line. In addition, Harrison struggled to get more than 50% of his first serves in. Harrison won over 20% more points on his first serve compared to his second serve. Harrison was not able to recover from these issues and lost the set 0-6.
Harrison came out in the second set by winning his serve for the first time of the night. Harrison improved his backhand and reduced some of his errors, but still was plagued by unforced and forced errors all night. Mainly, Harrison was always trying to make the big shot to try to catch up. This game played directly into Devvarman’s strategy.
Harrison lost his serve on the second attempt and was down 2-1. While Harrison had some great attempts to break Devvarman’s serves, he could not do so all night. The result was Devvarman won the second set 6-4 and the match.
Daniel Nguyen (Qualifier) defeated Adrien Bossel (Qualifier) 6-2, 6-4
The second semi final match up also pitted a younger up-and-coming player against a seemingly steady veteran. Daniel Nguyen is 24 years old and currently ranked 229th in the world (also his career high ranking). He is the first Vietnamese American to play in the U.S. Open tennis tournament and is a graduate of the University of Southern California.
Adrien Bossel is 28 years old Swiss tennis player. Bossel is currently ranked 311th in the world and his career high ranking is 310.
The first set indicated the tone of the match which would be that the veteran was going to be the player making the mistakes. Nguyen served very well and Bossel struggled. Nguyen was successful on over 60% of his first serves and won over 80% of the points. Bossel only made 40% of his first serves and also had four double faults in the first set. The allowed Nguyen to gain the early edge and break Bossel twice. Nguyen won the first set 6-2.
The second set was not a lot different, except that Bossel improved his first serve percentage by nearly 15%. This allowed Bossel to win more points. However, he still was broken once and Nguyen was able to close out the set and the match 6-4.
Finals Set for Saturday Night:
Daniel Nguyen (Qualifier) and Somdev Devvarman (7) will meet Saturday night July 11th, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. on center court at the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Center to determine the champion of the 2015 United States Tennis Association (USTA) Nielsen Pro Tennis Championship.
