Unseeded players reach final

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This article was published 18/08/2023 (778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The underdogs triumphed over the top dogs in Friday’s semifinal matchups at the National Bank Open Challenger tournament on Friday afternoon.

Both unseeded players took down the remaining seeded players in the semifinals. In the first match, Swiss youngster Leandro Reidi defeated No. 4-seed Liam Broady in straight sets by a score of 6-2, 6-3. The second semi-final was a three hour slugfest that saw Great Britain’s Ryan Peniston defeat No. 6 seed Arthur Cazaux 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

Reidi has been taking down top seeds all week. The 21-year-old defeated former world No. 7 David Goffin in the opening round. Reidi says that his ability to stay present and keep a cool head when playing has been instrumental to his success so far.

“I think it was key that I mentally stayed calm no matter what happened, ” said Reidi after his semifinal win.

While battling a player of Broady’s calibre is difficult enough‒Broady reached the third round of Wimbledon last month‒Reidi also had the pleasure of dealing with gusts of wind nearing 40 km/h.

The wind was a factor for everyone playing on Friday. Players’ tosses on serves would drift too close or far away from them and balls would carry in the air for prolonged periods of time. While the windy conditions made it difficult, Reidi took the challenge head on.

“I said ‘hey he has the same thing, it’s not only me,’ I just tried to stay calm and try to play my game.”

The wind was a constant throughout both matches. While it was no cake walk for Peniston, his upbringing in southeast England helped him get used to playing in similar windy circumstances.

“It’s always hard playing when it’s that windy, you don’t really get to practise a lot in those conditions. Luckily I’m from a place in England where it gets really windy so it wasn’t too bad for me, you just have to try and use it as much as you can and not fight it,” said Peniston.

Peniston’s return game was a big reason he was able to punch his ticket into the final. His ability to return serves came up huge late in the third set. With a 6-5 lead in the deciding set, Cazaux looked to hold serve and send it into a tiebreak. Peniston had other plans, breaking his opponent to win the match.

“I thought I returned really well today, Arthur (Cazaux) has an amazing serve, and luckily for me it was pretty windy so it was hard for him to serve, but I returned well.”

While Peniston and Reidi have never played against one another before they are familiar with each other.

“I’ve never played against Leo before, we’ve actually warmed eachother up the last two days and I know him really well, we see eachother every week and he’s a super nice guy and he’s a great player. I’m looking forward to it,” said Peniston of the final.

Reidi will square off against Peniston on Saturday at 11:00 A.M at the Tennis Manitoba Hub in West St. Paul.

donald.stewart@freepress.mb.ca