#srpska open

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Andrey Rublev & Dusan Lajovic - Srpska Open - Final

« Banja Luka Hvala 🖤 »

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Banja Luka Q2: Dino Prizmic [WC] def. Liam Broady [3] 7-5, 6-3 mid-match stats (2nd set)

📸 Banja Luka qualification feed

Liam was ahead 4-1 in the first set, but Prizmic started to get the hang out of his pace and made Liam move left and right, prompting the latter to err several times. Since taking the first set, Prizmic started to dominate the flow and did not look back since amid hiccups.

Service game-wise, despite having almost a non-existent second serve (21% winning rate), Prizmic's first serves were sufficient to make a damage on Liam, since he won 29% of his points from there. The 4 double faults surely did not help the cause, but the 3 aces definitely assisted the first serves part. Liam's strength came from the second serve (being 8% ahead than his first), but it was not enough because of Prizmic's working return games.

A combination of pacing, accuracy, and rally tolerance carried Prizmic's moment from being 1-4 down and having a shaky start to a convincing second set. His aggression was more controlled than Liam, especially with his constantly working cross-court approach, pressing Liam to move more. Even if Liam converted 75% of his break opportunities, Prizmic dug deep to create 12 chances to break, which includes most of his shot winners.

As a qualifier, Prizmic will face seventh seed Richard Gasquet after the placement. However, after Marco Cecchinato's withdrawal, Liam Broady was drawn to be the lucky loser, where he will face local wild card and former World No. 23 Damir Dzumhur. If both Prizmic and Liam wins their respective matches, they will potentially meet again in the second round. Will it happen again? Follow along the action in Banja Luka this week.

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📸 🎥 Banja Luka qualification feed

Back to Banja Luka’s second set…

Right at the start of the second set, Liam survived the scare of being 2 points behind (0-30) by bouncing back to hold 1-0, and Prizmic followed by holding his service game to 1-1. Somehow, an erratic service game led Liam to be broken immediately 1-2.

Liam took the break personally and broke back to 2-2 thanks to his forehand winner after converting his second or third break point. However, Prizmic figured out how to break back again thanks to his drop shot to be ahead 2 points for the break point (*2-2 15-40), before it got converted a point later at the expense of Liam’s rushed forehand. By then, Prizmic rediscovered his service game to hold 4-2.

Going back with his cross-court approach, Prizmic made Liam move even further, resulting in a forehand error to start the seventh game. Several points later, Prizmic somehow had a break point, which was converted to 5-2 at the expense of Liam’s backhand error. These attempts to press Liam’s shots from these rallies started to pay off with Prizmic having the opportunity to serve for the match.

However, Liam struck back at the pressure point, especially since it was Prizmic who committed an error in the cross-court approach, with a forehand error to top it off. Liam then broke to 3-5, which put him back on serve, but he fumbled his game point out of a different error, which tested both players’ ability in handling these pressure points. Prizmic then handled the rally well after the fumble, ended the point with a forehand that got Liam run over while trying to volley. While the previously mentioned shot resulted in Prizmic’s match point, the conversion came straight away after Prizmic successfully finished the rally from the baseline with a volley when he came to the net, and Liam’s response was insufficient.

As a result, Prizmic qualified for the main draw by taking the second set 6-3. This was thanks to his control of the flow, hitting cleaner groundstrokes in the second set with an addition of being more confident in his shots. Add that with a proper pacing execution and rally tolerance, this resulted in Liam being overwhelmed in some of these crucial points.

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🎥 ATP Challenger Livestream (via website)

There was one reason from yesterday's singles match between Benjamin Hassan and Lucas Miedler that made me tune in today. However, it would be the first time for me to watch Maximilian Neuchrist/Sam Weissborn, although I have heard about them for a long time.

Somehow, the net game caught my attention for the past few games. The way Max & Sam nailed swiftly their net response there really paid off with them breaking 3-2 in the 1st set. As I speak, they are now leading 5-3 in the 1st set. So solid.