Mathieu fails to serve out the match against Cuevas twice, but wins

There were lawsuits filed, but in the end Hamburg lost their bid to keep their status as a Masters Series event, so subsequently the event ran as an Open 500 event. Now the event has been moved to the lull period in the calendar after Wimbledon, not leading up to any part of the season but rather an opportunity for players to build up ranking points and prizemoney.

It has been a memorable week for Pablo Cuevas, the 23-year-old qualifier from Uruguay who recorded his best career result in singles by reaching the semi-finals in Hamburg, recording upsets on the way over Jurgen Melzer, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Nicolas Almagro. Based on his performances this week, it is hard to believe that Cuevas was actually ranked below the top 100 prior to this tournament.

Everything about Cuevas is smooth and solid, a sign that he doesn’t really have any noticeable weaknesses especially on this surface. It’s not the type of game that immediately demands attention, but rather what he can do over extended rallies and points that really starts to look impressive.

He has heavy groundstrokes on both sides, and beautifully produced shots particularly on the backhand side, the shot which single-handedly dominated the early part of the semi-final match against Paul-Henri Mathieu. They exchanged large amounts of crosscourt backhands which allowed me to get a good look at the shot, and Cuevas looked so comfortable as if he could do this all day, replicating the same motion over and over. He doesn’t step in on his backhand, but rather waits for it and sets up for his wind-up.

Slowly he started to work over Mathieu with depth and angle, hitting heavily topspun shots that landed deep limiting Mathieu’s attacking options. Once he had opened up the court, that’s when he took the risk to go down-the-line, playing well and within himself at the same time. He doesn’t really possess a good flat down-the-line shot and prefers to hit it with a decent margin over the net, which means he really needs to construct his points to get that opening. So that’s what he did in the first set and a half working the angles in the backhand corner, aided by Mathieu’s lack of variation in shot selection.

A key reason and perhaps the biggest reason for Cuevas’ successes this week was the effectiveness of his serve, causing all kinds of problems for his opponents trying to deal with the ball kicking up high out of their strike zones. It was the combination of placement and spin that made it impossible to deal with. What can you do to deal with a serve that takes you metres outside of the sideline, if it’s placed so wide and short in the box? Not to mention that it usually takes a while to adjust to such special shots like that. So Cuevas found himself having a whole court open to him, and starting off the rally with a big advantage even if they engaged in one.

A set and a break up, and this looked like Cuevas’ match in convincing fashion, but it was a huge occasion for him, the opportunity to reach a final of an Open 500 event, and one with a prestigious history, having been a Masters event in previous years. Where Cuevas had looked so in control and convincing, he started to show more hesitation and unsure of himself, making these strange errors that he never looked close to making early on, shanking a couple of shots and hitting too close to the centre of the court. Though I should also give credit to Mathieu’s tenacity hitting those shots on-the-run so much better, putting in a lot of effort to hit that double handed backhand on-the-stretch that requires so much strength and balance.

I noted in the following game that Cuevas attempted to hit two forehand down-the-line shots, running around from the backhand corner, one of the most difficult shots in tennis because you really have barely any room to work with. And I was wondering why Cuevas would attempt to hit that shot, when he had not used it to find himself in a winning position originally. It was a panic shot obviously, and Cuevas was wondering the same himself motioning to himself to stick with the off-forehand.

Unfortunately for Cuevas, by now Mathieu had started to grow in confidence and was more willing to go down-the-line particularly on the forehand. All of his shots started to gain in pace and accuracy, and he was hitting the shoulder-high loopy balls so much better. Mathieu is definitely a player that runs on adrenaline in order to play better given that he’s not really one of those effortless players. He needs to generate power, and that requires energy and confidence to find that racquet head speed.

A lot of credit has to go to Mathieu for the positive body language that showed in the match, the belief that he could still win the match and raise his game, something that must have surely been intimidating for Cuevas. Every time I watch Mathieu play, I’m always impressed with how positive he is, how he is constantly trying to encourage himself regardless of the scoreline. So it doesn’t work much of the time, but that just impresses me even more that he doesn’t just drop those shoulders and start thinking about the past instead. He keeps himself in the moment instead.

The third set turned to be mostly a nerve wracking affair on both sides, where the quality of play from both players seemed to be largely dependent on the scoreboard. Strangely despite having a 45 minute delay from a leaking roof, once play had resumed at the start of the third set, it was like nothing had changed.

Mathieu continued to ride the wave of confidence, while Cuevas put in a very tame performance until Mathieu served for the match at 5-1, where Cuevas started to play more relaxed, loose tennis. It was a role reversal because it was Mathieu’s turn to tighten up squandering two breaks. Unbelievably as soon as the match leveled back to 5-5, Cuevas played a shocking game to give Mathieu yet another chance to serve for the match and this time he did so successfully.