By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, February 8, 2020
Jiri Vesely fought off four match points in the decisive tie break edging Ricardas Berankis 6-7(8), 7-6(3), 7-6(7) in a three hour, three-minute thriller to battle into the Pune final.
Photo credit: Tata Open Maharashtra Facebook
Pounding his palm off his chest, Jiri Vesely celebrated another heart-racing comeback with rib-rocking affirmation.
Vesely fought off four match points in the decisive tie break edging Ricardas Berankis 6-7(8), 7-6(3), 7-6(7) in a three hour, three-minute thriller to battle into the Pune final.
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It's the second day in a row Vesely stood on the ledge of loss and refused to teeter. He saved a pair of match points in his quarterfinal comeback conquest of Ilya Ivashka yesterday.
The 107th-ranked Czech took a ride on the wild side again today firing 28 aces, including an ace off the service line to earn match point, to reach his first final since Bucharest in April 2015.
Vesely will play for his second career title, and first in five years, when he faces Egor Gerasimov in tomorrow's final.
The 90th-ranked Belarusian beat James Duckworth 7-6(2), 6-4 in today's second semifinal. Gerasimov broke into a wide grin when Duckworth's final forehand flew long sending him into his first career ATP final.
The triple tie break thriller was sweet redemption for Vesely, who failed to close a two-sets-to-one lead bowing to Berankis 4-6, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the US Open first round last August.
"It's 3-6 [down] I still knew I had two serves and if I'm going to make both of them he still has to push, he still has to go for it," Vesely said of his mind-set on the first three match points. "Yeah, at the end, you know, I was just lucky. He missed a quite easy volley. But this is tennis. This happens to everybody.
"The last time we played together, I was serving for the match. I didn't make it. And today it was the opposite side. This is sport, this is tennis. I'm really happy to be in the finals. It's amazing."
It's an emotionally-crushing loss for Berankis, who played bolder points throughout the final tie break and put himself in position to close, but sputtered at the finish line.
Berankis banged a backhand down the line for 3-2. Deadlocked at 3-all one of the longest exchanges of the set ensued ending with Vesely slapping a forehand into net giving the mini break.
The left-handed Czech fired forehands to the Lithuanian’s backhand before sailing a forehand down the line. Berankis moved forward behind a bold forehand down the line knocking off a forehand volley for three match points at 6-3.
Vesely saved the first two with a series of aggressive forehands.
On his third match point, Berankis was in prime position to knock off a forehand volley, but he tightened up and stuck the nervy shot into the net.
Seeing three set points dissipate didn’t diminish Berankis’ forward thinking. He moved in earning a fourth match point on an errant lob only to miss a diagonal forehand wide of the sideline.
Throughout all the match-point turbulence, Vesely competed with calm resolve and showed no signs of frustration.
Calmly stepping to the line, Vesely slashed his 28th ace off service line for his first match point.
Vesely made his match-point moment count.
Hammering a forehand into the corner, he drew the error sealing a gritty three-hour, three-minute triumph pounding his chest as his coach threw a clenched fist from the box.
The 26-year-old Vesely's lone ATP title came in January, 2015 when he knocked off Lucas Pouille, Thomaz Bellucci, Ernests Gulbis, Donald Young, Kevin Anderson and Adrian Mannarino in succession to win Auckland as a qualifier.