Perseverance paid off for Kiwi Rubin Statham, as he ground his way to a surprising straight sets win over compatriot Dan King-Turner in the opening round of singles at the Heineken Open.
Down early in both sets, Statham, ranked 332nd in the world, kept his cool in the biggest match of his professional career to sweep King-Turner (257th) out of the tournament in 1h 36m.
"I feel fantastic," he beamed afterwards. "It's a great start to the year, probably the best start you could ask for."
Statham served double faults to drop the opening game of each set and had to play catchup almost the entire match. But he showed his mental fortitude by reeling off six straight games to take the first set and four straight in the second, winning most of the big points along the way.
"Dan has a great serve, but the swirly wind may have affected serving slightly," observed Statham (22). "I was looking to neutralise his serve and felt comfortable on the baseline.
"At times, there was some brilliance out there, but it was tough to play our best tennis in that wind."
King-Turner (25), the top-ranked NZ player in his fifth appearance as wild card at the Heineken Open, could only reflect on an opportunity badly squandered.
"I don't actually know what I did well," he lamented. "It's definitely different playing someone where you both thought you had a chance to win.
"I wasn't nervous at all. It's just one of those times where you have to take a step back when you're not so frustrated and figure out what happened.
"For someone that relies on their serve so much, I wasn't holding as confortably as I would have liked. I knew my serve wasn't going well, so I tried to spin some in, but then my baseline game let me down."
If it's any consoldation, the loss does mean King-Turner will now make the first round of Australian Open singles qualifying.
Statham had some comforting words for his friend and rival, who was obviously demoralised by the outcome.
"Dan is a great player, win or lose. He's had his best year, a career-high ranking and is about to play his first Grand Slam in a couple of days ... he's doing great."
Statham was also a borderline prospect for inclusion into Australian Open qualifying, but will now gratefully move on to a second round encounter with either eighth-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes or Australian qualifier James Lemke.
He faced Montanes at the Heineken two years ago, falling in straight sets.
"There was just the one break in each set, but I didn't go into that match in the best shape physically. I will this time.
"He actually plays a very similar game style to me, maybe a little better."
In other Panasonic Singles action, Brazillian Thomaz Bellucci, ranked 36th, scored a 6-3 6-3 victory over Swiss Marco Chiudinelli and now awaits the winner of Philipp Kohlschreiber v David Nalbandian.
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