The USA’s Brendan Evans and Serbia’s Ilia Bozoljac will face of in the final of the AEGON Trophy after coming through their semifinals in straight sets.
World No.159 Evans made grass court tennis look easy, despite cold, blustery conditions on the Nottingham Tennis Centre’s centre court, defeating Sergei Bubka 7-5 6-4.
The Florida resident took the match to his Ukrainian opponent from the first point, attacking the net at every opportunity and scoring a convincing win from an accomplished display of serve-volley tennis.
With the women’s event completed on the indoor courts earlier in the day, Evans said he was surprised the rain had cleared, allowing them to play outdoors.
“It was tough because we were all expecting to play indoors and we warmed up indoors,” said Evans.
“They told us with about half an hour to go we were playing outdoors and when we got out here it was really tough conditions, really windy, so it was kind of an ugly match.
“It’s something both of us had to fight through and I thought I handled it a little better today.”
Contesting his third final for the season Evans, who won a Challenger on hard courts in Noumea in January, said he felt at home on grass, despite having relatively few opportunities to play on it during the year.
“I try to play every year out here because I like the grass,” said Evans, “it has gotten a little slower over the years but I still like it, it’s still a surface preference of mine to play on and I always enjoy this time of year.”
Celebrating the best grass court performance of his career, Evans said he was delighted to have reached the final of the AEGON Trophy.
“I was just coming up here thinking about getting some matches on grass ready for Wimbledon. I wasn’t really expecting much and I’m in the final so I’m happy with that,” he said.
“This is a really tough Challenger, the ranking cut-off was very tough and all the guys were good - there’s a lot of good grass court guys out here - so for me to be in the final it gives me a lot of confidence going into the next few weeks.”
And Evans said he was looking forward to Sunday’s contest against Bozoljac. “I’m really excited to be playing in the final. I’ve played Ilia twice and we played two really tough matches and I barely squeaked both those out.
“He’s a really good player with a huge serve but I love it and I’m looking forward to a great match,” he said.
Saturday’s second semifinal was a hard-hitting affair fought out by two of the most powerful players in the men’s event, Bozoljac running out the victor over Britain's Josh Goodall, 7-6(5) 6-3.
A fiery encounter throughout, the opening set was decided in a service dominated tiebreak punctuated by frequent line call queries.
World No.131 Bozoljac nosed ahead with to lead 5-2 in the breaker and, despite Goodall reclaiming the mini-break to trail 4-5, he was never able to head the Serbian, conceding seven points to five in the tiebreak.
With Goodall struggling to control his serve in the increasingly windy conditions, Bozoljac made another breakthrough in the sixth game of the second set, breaking the Brit’s serve to lead 4-2.
Goodall was again forced to defend his service game in the eighth game of the set and, while he repelled Bozoljac’s assault on that occasion, he was soon facing match points on the Belgrade resident’s serve, trailing 3-5.
Bozoljac served out the match with a love game, to reach his first Challenger final since winning back-to-back clay court titles in Slovenia and Bosnia/Herzegovina in September last year.
British No.3, Goodall, was disappointed following the match. "It was difficult conditions and I guess other people might have seen it differently but I thought that I was unlucky on some of the big points,” said the world No.217. “I played ok today and there wasn't a lot between us, I was just slightly unlucky."
Goodall said he was looking forward to opening his AEGON Championships campaign against Gilles Muller of Luxembourg when the tournament kicked off at the Queen’s Club on Monday. "Gilles is a great player but I beat the guy he lost to this week so I can take confidence from that,” said the AEGON Championships wildcard.
“I don't think he plays that great on grass, another Brit, Alexander Slabinsky, beat him in the first round at the Queen's Club last year, but obviously he's a top 100 player."
While delighted with his semifinal win, Bozoljac said he wasn’t taking anything for granted in Sunday’s final. “I am happy but I always celebrate at the end,” said the 23-year-old.
“This is just another victory and I have to play finals so I have to be focussed and I shouldn’t celebrate before that. Doesn’t matter what I do in the final I will be happy but now I have to concentrate on that match.”
He said he hoped to reverse his 0-2 head-to-head record against the American.
“I played twice against Brendan Evans and actually I never beat him,” said Bozoljac, both matches I was winning to the end and he somehow turned them into victories. It was like I didn’t concentrate at the end, it wasn’t the quality of tennis that he beat me on.”
And he said he would be concentrating hard in Sunday’s final. “This time I will try to be focused until the end. As they say, it’s not over until it finishes so I’ll try to concentrate the whole match and if I have a chance I will try to beat him.”
Sunday sees the final day’s play at the 2009 AEGON Trophy with men’s doubles action kicking off at 12pm, followed by the men’s singles final.